In the same period last year, Apple earned $51.3 billion (CZK 1.19 trillion) on iPhones, in 2022 it was $50.6 billion (CZK 1.18 trillion). In a year-on-year comparison, the American technology giant lost 5.34 billion dollars, which corresponds to more than 124 billion crowns, in the apple phone segment alone.
The weaker demand for iPhones is also reflected in comparison with the competition. This year, Apple was dethroned from the top of the list of the most successful smartphone sellers. South Korean Samsung returned to the lead.
Check out the Samsung Galaxy S24 smartphonesVideo: News
Apple no longer dominates the smartphone market
Cell phone
Apple was the most successful smartphone vendor in the last quarter of last year, when it managed to dethrone Samsung after 13 years. This happened thanks to the interest in the latest iPhone 15.
Analysts were anxiously waiting to see how the situation on the market would change during the first quarter of this year. In January, Samsung came out with smartphones from the Galaxy S24 family, which were a direct response to the latest Apple smartphones and were the first ever mobile phones to integrate artificial intelligence (AI).
This obviously caught the attention of customers, because according to IDC, Samsung once again jumped to the top of the list of manufacturers that sell the most smartphones. During the first three months of this year, the South Korean company managed to sell 60.1 million smartphones, while it was ten million less for Apple, i.e. 50.1 million.
A closer look at the data reveals that Samsung still saw a slight drop in shipments as its sales fell 0.7 percent year-on-year. However, Apple saw an even more significant drop in sales, by 9.6 percent.
China is growing
This is not good news for both companies, as their competitors in lower positions are on the contrary strengthening, as is the entire market. The third place was occupied by Xiaomi during the first quarter, which improved by 33.8% year-on-year. The smartphone sales of this manufacturer amounted to 40.8 million smartphones.
An even higher increase was recorded by the Chinese company Transsion, which covers brands such as Tecno and Infinix. In a year-on-year comparison, this increased by 84.9% to 28.5 million phones sold during the first three months of this year. No other manufacturer has been more successful.
According to IDC, the entire mobile market grew by 7.8% in the past three months to 289.4 million devices sold. A comparison of the most successful smartphone vendors for the first quarter of this year can be found in the table below.
| Smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2024 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Mobile phone shipments (in millions) | Market share | Year-on-year difference |
| 1. Samsung | 60.1 | 20.8% | -0.7% |
| 2. Apple | 50.1 | 17.3% | -9.6% |
| 3. Xiaomi | 40.8 | 14.1% | 33.8% |
| 4. Transsion | 28.5 | 9.9% | 84.9% |
| 5. Oppo | 25.2 | 8.7% | -8.5% |
| Other | 84.7 | 29.3% | 7.2% |
| Together | 289.4 | 100.0% | 7.8% |
Introducing the Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max smartphonesVideo: manufacturer’s archive
What can the new iPhone 15 do?
The new basis of the offer is the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus with 6.1-inch or 6.7 inch display. Following the pattern of last year’s premium models, they have a dynamic island instead of a display cutout for the camera and other sensors.
Apple has worked a lot on the quality of the cameras in these models, so even the basic iPhones now have a double optical zoom. The main sensor on the back also boasts a higher resolution of 48 MPx.
The more advanced iPhones 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max have the same diagonals, i.e. 6.1 and 6.7 inches. However, their body was created from a titanium alloy. Apple equipped them with even more powerful Apple A17 Pro chips, which are said to be the most powerful in the mobile world. The performance is therefore logically higher than that of the basic 15s.
Improved graphics will appeal to gamers, offering hardware support for ray tracing. In practice, both phones are thus capable of more realistic rendering of lights, shadows and reflections in individual scenes of the game. This is a function that even gaming laptops boast of, for example.
There are three cameras on the back. The biggest innovation is the use of a new zoom lens that can zoom up to five times. The previous iPhone 14 Pro only offered 3x zoom. The main sensor boasts a resolution of 48 MPx, followed by the aforementioned 12 MPx telephoto lens and a 12 MPx wide-angle camera.
In addition, all models are newly equipped with a USB-C connector.
Photo: archive of the manufacturer
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Tags: Biggest drop covid Apple losing billions due weak interest iPhones
