Samsung edges out Apple to become third-largest smartphone processor brand

Apart from smartphones, Samsung also makes various components that go into a smartphone, including display panels, storage and memory chips, camera sensors, and processors. The company has edged out Apple to become the third-largest processor firm in the world, thanks to increased sales in India and the US.

According to the latest smartphone SoC report from Counterpoint Research, Samsung had a market share of 14.1 percent in the global mobile AP (application processor) market in 2019. It captured the third position, edging out Apple, which had a 13.1 percent share of the market last year. Qualcomm and MediaTek are the leaders in the smartphone processor segment, with market shares of 33.4 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively.

Of the top five smartphone SoC brands, only Samsung and Huawei showed signs of growth. The South Korean firm's System LSI business makes smartphone processing chipsets under the Exynos brand, and those chips are used in smartphones from Samsung Electronics, Meizu, and Vivo.

Samsung's recently announced smartphones, the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra use the newest high-end chipset from System LSI, Exynos 990. While the company also sells the Snapdragon 865 variant of these phones, they are only sold in China, Korea, and the US.

Most mid-range smartphones from the company use Exynos 9611 or Exynos 980. Very few models use chipsets from MediaTek and Qualcomm.