Samsung overtook Apple as the top smartphone brand in Q1 2023

Samsung dethroned Apple as the top smartphone player in the post-holiday-season quarter, capitalizing on its mid-tier A Series and the recently launched S23 series.

These results come despite Apple delivering a strong performance in the holiday quarter that ended December 30 with sales of 70 million units driven by the iPhone 14 series.

But the company still managed to capture nearly half of all smartphone revenues mainly due to a minimal -2% YoY decrease in shipment – despite Samsung shipping the most units during the quarter.

Although Samsung also contributed to global revenues with its high-ASP Galaxy S23 flagships, its -19% shipment decline in the quarter set it behind Apple. Globally, Apple and Samsung remained the most profitable brands, capturing 96% of global smartphone operating profits.

Meanwhile, Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo also marked significant declines of -22%, -10%, -16% respectively, which contributed to the overall global smartphone revenue and operating profit decline in the quarter, although not as much as global shipments.