The iPhone 15 was the most shipped smartphone in 2024, garnering 3% of total shipments, and Apple topped the leaderboard of smartphone vendors for the second year, according to research firm Canalys.
Despite two consecutive years of declines, the smartphone market bounced back in 2024, growing 7%, reported Canalys, a sister company to Light Reading. Global smartphone shipments reached over 1.2 billion units.
Apple and Samsung top leaderboard
While the leading smartphone vendors, Apple and Samsung, experienced a 1% decline in market share in 2024, they still each hold 18% of the global smartphone market. Apple shipped 225.9 million smartphones in 2024, and Samsung came in close behind with 222.9 million shipments.
Following Samsung, smartphone market leaders included vendors Xiaomi, Transsion and Oppo.
"Apple and Samsung remained resilient amid strong flagship demand, reflecting the continued premiumization trend of the market," commented Sanyam Chaurasia, senior analyst at Canalys, in a statement.
Chaurasia added that for high-end smartphones, consumers are increasingly choosing the "premium version of the flagship series," and vendors are doing well to differentiate models within their smartphone series.
For example, Apple's shipments of the 16 Pro and Pro Max in 2024 were 11% higher than the 15 Pro and Pro Max in 2023, shipping more than 55 million units.
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"The performance of the Pro models in the 16 series was a key driver to the iPhone 16 outperforming the launch year performance of the iPhone 15," said Chaurasia.
Samsung shipped the highest volume of its S-series smartphones since 2019 and "skewed more toward the Ultra than ever before," said Chaurasia. Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S25 series in January and focused heavily on its AI features, such as AI agents that can assist with shopping and cooking tips. However, in a review of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, The Verge said that some AI features performed better than others, which was frustrating to buyers as the phone retails at a whopping $1,299.

(Source: Samsung) Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra smartphones.
Apple faces challenges in China and Indonesia
Taking a closer look at the smartphone market on a regional basis, Canalys found that Mainland China experienced smartphone growth at 4%, North America at 1% and Europe at 3% in 2024 due to vendor promotions including discounts, trade-ins and device bundles. China's subsidy of electronics, including smartphones, could also boost vendor growth in the region.
Prior to the release of Apple Intelligence, Canalys told Light Reading that if the smartphone vendor hopes to make a more long-term recovery in the China smartphone market, developing AI features that appeal to the local market will be critical. In Q2 of 2024, Apple ranked at the bottom of the list of local vendors in Mainland China including vivo, Oppo, Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei. However, Q2 is often a low season for Apple, explained Canalys.
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Apple is also facing challenges in China with Apple Intelligence, its AI suite. It's still unclear when regulators there will approve the release of Apple Intelligence. However, in a recent interview with Reuters, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that "about half of Apple's 11% decline in China revenues was attributable to changes in how much inventory the company's resellers held."
"We did see that the markets where we had rolled out Apple Intelligence, that the year-over-year performance on the iPhone 16 family was stronger than those where Apple Intelligence was not available," said Cook during Apple's recent earnings call with analysts.
The iPhone 16, which was released last September, is also still banned in Indonesia. Despite Apple's recent commitment to build a $1 billion Airtag manufacturing facility in Batam, the Indonesian government has blocked the sale of the iPhone 16 because it didn't meet the country's requirement that electronics such as smartphones and tablets sold domestically contain at least 35% locally made parts.
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While emerging markets led the industry's growth in 2024, that trend is slowing down with some market saturation, said Runar Bjørhovde, analyst for Canalys. Balancing short-term performance, inventory management and long-term investments will be key to ongoing success for vendors in emerging markets, he added.
Call it a comeback
Bjørhovde called 2024 a "comeback year for the smartphone industry," which brought in the highest annual global shipment volume since the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that demand has increased in the mass-market smartphone segment due to consumers upgrading their smartphones bought during the pandemic.
Bjørhovde has also previously forecast that 2025 is shaping up to be a "critical year for foldable smartphones." However, foldables are still niche, garnering only 1.5% of the market. Plus, consumers are still hesitant to adopt foldables due to concerns around price, usability and durability. New brands to the foldable market include Nubia and ZTE.