Apple Becomes World’s Top Smartphone Company

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 19, 7:30AM EST

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Apple Becomes World’s Top Smartphone Company — © Stockfoo / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

No one could tell from Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) stock price that it has become the number one company in the world based on smartphone shipments. It has been up against South Korea’s Samsung for years. And, in China, the world’s largest smartphone market with over 900 million users, Apple is up against stiff local competition. (These iconic gadgets have shaped our lives since the 1950s.)

IDC, a major IT industry research firm, announced the results of its Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker for the fourth quarter of 2023 and for the full year. Based on smartphone shipments across the entire industry, there was a drop of 3.2% year over year to 1.17 billion units in 2023. The fourth quarter was better as unit shipments rose 8.5% year over year to 326.1 million.

Speaking of the full year 2023 numbers, Nabila Popal, research director with IDC’s Worldwide Tracker team, stated, “Not only is Apple the only player in the Top 3 to show positive growth annually, but also bags the number 1 spot annually for the first time ever.”

Apple shipped 235 million smartphones last year, which gave it a market share of 20.1%. This was a growth of 3.7% over 2022. Samsung shipped 227 units and has a market share of 19.4%. However, its total sales fell 13.7% from 2022. Two Chinese giants took the next two places. Xiaomi’s smartphone shipments were 145 million, while Oppo’s were 103 million. These two companies have made Apple’s fight to pick up market share in China difficult.

Apple’s shares rose over 50% last year. So far this year, they are flat. More than one Wall Street research analyst has downgraded the stock. Among the reasons are Chinese competition and worry that iPhone 15 sales are soft. This softness may be because iPhone 15 features are not much different from those on the iPhone 14.

The fact that Apple had the number one global spot in smartphone shipments last year shows its smartphone business still has legs.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.