Analyst houses Canalys and IDC reported growth in the global smartphone market fuelled by the hype from gen AI equipped devices.
“Optimism continues to build in the global smartphone market, fuelled by innovative technologies like gen AI and recovering demand from the mass market,” said Amber Liu, Canalys Research Manager.
Canalys Analyst Sheng Win Chow added “Samsung and Apple are rapidly advancing their premium product strategies with gen AI feature as a key focus.”
According to Canalys the smartphone market the global smartphone market grew by 12% in Q2 2024 reaching 288 million units. Samsung was market leader with 18% market share due to its “renewed its emphasis on the high-end market as a strategic priority”.
Apple came second with 16% market share, while Xiaomi came closely with 15% - showing an annual growth rate of 27%, the fastest in the top five. Vivo took fourth spot with 9% and Transsion was placed fifth, also with 9% share.
Meanwhile, IDC reported the smartphone market grew by 6.5% in the second quarter to 285.4 million units, marking four consecutive quarters of shipment growth.
Apple and Samsung are benefitting from the trend of premiumisation said Nabila Popal, senior research director with IDC's Worldwide Tracker team.
“Many leading Chinese OEMs are increasing shipments in the low end in an attempt to capture volume share amidst weak demand. As a result, the share of mid-range devices is challenged,” said Popal.
"Still, there is lots of excitement in the smartphone market today thanks to higher average selling prices and the buzz created by Gen AI smartphones, which are expected to grow faster than any mobile innovation we have seen to date and forecast to capture 19% of the market with 234 million shipments this year."
IDC also listed Samsung and Apple as frontrunners in the smartphone market, shipping 53.9 million and 45.2 million units respectively. Taking the final podium place was Xiaomi with 42.3 million units, and Vivo and Oppo were listed as joint fourth with 25.9 million and 25.8 million respectively.
Xiaomi saw the fastest rate of year-on-year growth with 27.4% from 21.3 million units in 2023. Vivo also saw a surge, at a rate of 21.9% from 21.3 million last year.
