Apple has been eating away at Samsung's smartphone sales over the past few years. For the first time last year, Apple sold more smartphones globally than Samsung. Even in Europe, which was usually considered Samsung's bastion, Apple became the number one smartphone brand in the final quarter of last year.
Apple surpassed Samsung smartphone shipments in Europe in Q4 2023
According to the latest shipment figures from market research firm Canalys, Apple dethroned Samsung to become Europe's biggest smartphone brand in Q4 2023. Apple shipped 12.4 million iPhones in Europe in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to Samsung's 10.8 million smartphone shipments. Apple's shipments increased by 1%, while Samsung's smartphone shipments slipped by 12% compared to Q4 2022. As a result, Apple's smartphone market share in Europe touched 33%, while Samsung's market share dwindled to 28%. The overall European smartphone market saw a drop in shipments by 3% in Q4 2023 compared to the same quarter in the previous year. Samsung dropped considerably more than the overall market.
Xiaomi ranked third in Europe with 6 million smartphone shipments in Q4 2023, while Motorola ranked fourth after shipping two million phones. Honor shipped 1.1 million smartphones during the same period, which is a massive rise of 116% compared to Q4 2022. All other smartphone brands (which include ASUS, OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, and Vivo) collectively shipped 5.5 million phones in Q4 2023.
Samsung still ranked number one in European smartphone market when you consider full-year numbers for 2023
Samsung still managed to be the number one smartphone maker in Europe when you look at the numbers for the complete year. In 2023, Samsung shipped 43.7 million smartphones, while Apple ranked second with 34.6 million iPhone shipments during the same period. Samsung's shipments dropped by 11% compared to 2022, while Apple's shipments reduced by 4% compared to the year earlier. Xiaomi ranked third with 22.2 million smartphone shipments, which is a 10% drop year-over-year.
Motorola shipped 6.4 million phones, a 34% increase compared to 2022. OPPO's smartphone shipments dropped by a massive 45% in 2023 compared to the previous year. The Chinese smartphone maker managed to ship just 3.7 million phones, largely owing to its patent disputes with Nokia.
