What you need to know
- Smartphones sales saw an overall growth of 4% YoY after a slump in. the past two years.
- While Samsung and Apple continue to hold their spots in the top five —first and second place, their overall sales dipped.
- Xiaomi reigned as the fastest-growing smartphone brand due to portfolio realignment and aggressive expansion.
- Huawei, HONOR, and Motorola were ranked among the fastest-growing OEMs among all the top 10 brands.
Smartphone sales have finally shot up after a two-year slump. According to a recent report by Counterpoint, the sales of smartphones grew by 4% YoY (33%) in 2024 when compared to the previous year.
As for what brought in the sudden shift in the numbers, Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research, contributed to overall economic growth in Europe, China, and Latin America, meaning more people could afford to buy new phones.
"The smartphone market started showing signs of recovery from Q4 2023 and has now grown for five consecutive quarters," Pathak added in the report.
Xiaomi, even though it came third, took the lead as the fastest-growing smartphone brand among the top five in 2024, with an overall growth of 12% when compared to the previous year. The report stated that this growth was solely due to the company's "portfolio realignment, premium push, and aggressive expansion activities."
As for Samsung, the company did see a 1% fall in its overall sales but continued to lead (19% overall sales) the market in 2024. Samsung got to stick around at the top, thanks to the rising demand for its S24 series, especially in the USA and Western Europe. Part of it was because the S24 was the company's first flagship to come with Galaxy AI, bringing in a host of new capabilities, helping it "outperform its predecessors." It remains to be seen how much the Galaxy S25 series could bump up Samsung sales this year.
Taking second place is Apple, with 18% of the share coming from Apple’s iPhone 16 series. The report further added that this series was met with mixed reactions due to the lack of Apple intelligence at the launch. Nevertheless, it did see enough growth in non-core markets like Latin America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific to score second place.
OPPO took fourth place, with an 8% YoY decline, and Vivo, even though it took fifth place, ended the year on a high note as the top-ranked OEM in India and China. Huawei, HONOR, and Motorola were ranked among the fastest-growing OEMs among all the top 10 brands.
The past year also saw the rollout of more generative AI (Gen AI) in smartphones— limited mostly to higher-end phones. However, Counterpoint Research predicts that by 2028, nine out of 10 smartphones over $250 (mid-range) will have Gen AI built into them.
As for how the market could look in 2025, the report says that despite numbers possibly never matching pre-pandemic times, "revenue growth is set to continue to outpace volume growth, with revenues growing 8% YoY, compared to 4% volume growth."
