Canalys: Smartphone market grows 7% in 2024, Apple leads
Smartphone sales grew 7% in 2024 compared to 2023, reaching 1.22 billion units, marking a rebound after two consecutive years of decline, according to Canalys' latest report.
Apple and Samsung were tied in the lead with 18% of the market each, Canalys says, followed by Xiaomi with 14%, Transsion with 9%, Oppo with 8%, vivo with 8%, Honor and Lenovo with 5% each, and Huawei and Realme with 4% each.
Canalys and some other analyst houses count Transsion brands together while counting BBK brands separately, we're still not sure what's up with that, but do note that if we add up vivo, Oppo, and Realme, BBK is in first place with 20% of the pie, leaving both Apple and Samsung in the dust. But then we wouldn't have the million "Apple and Samsung rule together" posts, would we?
Frustrations aside, Apple's performance was down to "emerging market growth and stable performances in North America and Europe", while Xiaomi was "driven by strong momentum in Mainland China and continued strategic expansion into emerging markets".
Apple sold 225.9 million iPhones in 2024 (down 1% from 2023), Samsung sold 222.9 million Galaxy smartphones (also down by 1%), Xiaomi sold 168.6 million units (growing 15%), Transsion sold 106.7 million (growing 15%) and Oppo (including OnePlus) sold 103.6 million (growing 3%). In terms of overall smartphone sales, Mainland China grew 4% compared to 2023, North America grew 1%, and Europe grew 3%.
If we look at just the fourth quarter of 2024, Apple led with 77.1 million shipments and 23% market share (down 1% in volume, down from 24% in Q4 2023), followed by Samsung with 51.9 million units and 16% of the pie (down 3% in volume, down from 17% market share YoY), Xiaomi with 42.7 million shipments and 13% share (up 5% in volume, static share), Transsion with 27.2 million units shipped for 8% of the pie (down 4% in volume and down from 9% in market share YoY), and vivo with 26.4 million units and 8% share (up 10% in volume and up from 7% in share).