2023 is a special year, the progress and application of AI technology, Apple's entry into the XR field, and Huawei's strong return with the Mate60 series, these are all big events that can shake the entire digital technology circle.
However, the above-mentioned events can be predicted in advance through the revelations on the Internet, which is expected. So the question is, what are the other big events in 2023 that we didn't expect?
As we all know, the market research agency IDC releases the sales report of the major mobile phone brands in the global market every year. originally thought that Samsung should still be the first in mobile phone sales in 2023, and the rest of the rankings are still divided between Apple and domestic manufacturers. As a result, Apple actually surpassed Samsung and directly won the first place in global sales.
It took Apple 12 years to become the first brother of mobile phones
According to data released by IDC, global smartphone shipments will decline by 3% year-on-year in 20232%, down to 11700 million units. Among them, Apple's mobile phone sales in 2023 will be 234.6 billion units, accounting for 201% of the global mobile phone market share, ranking first.
Since 2011, Samsung has won the first place in the global mobile phone market for 12 consecutive years. However, in 2023, Samsung will fall off the altar for the first time and be overtaken by Apple. IDC data shows that Samsung's mobile phone sales in 2023 will be 226.6 billion units, accounting for 194% of the global mobile phone market share. Compared to last year, mobile phone shipments fell by 13 percent year-on-year6%。The old rival Apple's performance in 2023 is very bright, compared with last year, Apple's mobile phone shipments increased by 3% year-on-year7%。From this data, it can be seen that in 2023, only Apple and Transsion's mobile phone shipments will show a reverse growth trend, and the rest of the mobile phone brands will have negative growth. It is worth mentioning that although Samsung ranks second, it is the manufacturer with the most serious decline in mobile phone shipments, with a year-on-year decline of 136%。
Samsung's mobile phone sales have been surpassed by Apple, and opinions on the matter vary on the Internet, some say that it is because Samsung has lost the Chinese market, some say that Samsung lacks technological innovation, and some say that Samsung focuses on mid-range machines and ignores the low-end machine market. The author believes that none of the above statements are true, but they are not entirely wrong. For example, Samsung's mobile phone market share in China reached 18 in 20137%, ranking first in China. In 2014, Samsung won with 121% market share, ranking second.
With the rise of domestic mobile phones, since 2015, Samsung's ranking in the domestic mobile phone market has fallen out of the top 5. After that, due to the first door of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 series, Samsung's share of the domestic mobile phone market has fallen to less than 1%. However, Samsung still ranks first in the global smartphone market, so it is not correct that Samsung lost the domestic market and caused Apple to overtake Samsung.
The author believes that the reasons why Samsung was overtaken by Apple can actually be divided into the following three points:
The global economic downturn has led to a decline in consumer demand for replacement;
Domestic mobile phone manufacturers are too volatile, and Samsung mobile phones have been surpassed by domestic mobile phones in some aspects;
Smartphones have become saturated, and it is difficult to have greater innovation.
To put it simply, the reason why the market share of Samsung mobile phones has declined seriously is because compared with domestic mobile phones, Samsung mobile phones can't pull a big gap between hardware and software, plus the pricing of domestic mobile phones is more advantageous than Samsung mobile phones, and even ahead of Samsung in some aspects, such as generative AI assistants (blue heart small V), the experience of imaging systems, etc. All of the above reasons have led to Samsung's share in the global mobile phone market being further squeezed.
The apple with its eyebrows raised, the secret behind its success
In the context of the global sluggish mobile phone market, Apple still achieved reverse growth, and the reasons behind it are not difficult to understand.
First of all, iPhone users are highly loyal to the Apple brand. We all know that with the excellent software ecology of iOS, as well as the deep combination between Apple's own hardware and software, smooth and non-stuttering has become the label of iPhone. Apple is a technology company that likes to do subtraction, so the system interaction and the use of various iOS functions are easier to use than the Android system.
Moreover, the iOS ecosystem is relatively closed, and it is difficult to get rid of it once you get used to it. Therefore, iPhone users are very sticky to the Apple brand. Coupled with the high-end product image of Apple's mobile phone, as well as the good reputation of previous generations of iPhones in the market, Apple has gained a huge user base.
Previously, it was reported that Apple broke the threshold of 1 billion active devices for the first time in 2016, and this number reached 1.3 billion in 2018. If you extrapolate according to this data, there are at least more than 100 million iPhone users in the world now.
Coupled with the smooth and non-stuck characteristics of iOS, Apple has a lot of nail users, which can also be understood as potential replacement users. In order to stimulate the replacement needs of this part of potential users, Apple has only done two things, the first thing is to give more preferential activities to iPhone, taking this year's iPhone 15 series as an example, these four models have been released less than 5 months, Apple has opened preferential activities on major e-commerce platforms, and even officially launched the iPhone 15 series to welcome the New Year at the beginning of 2024.
It's like Apple's official old iPhone deduction activity, in the past, Apple's official **old machine** is lower than the third-party**platform**, now, even if you don't buy Apple Care+, you don't have the qualification to renew every year, you can also get a new phone at 5%, provided that your mobile phone is a previous generation model.
The second thing Apple does is create marketing gimmicks. For example, before the release of the iPhone 14 series, netizens have already learned that the iPhone 14 series is another generation of Apple squeezing toothpaste, the hardware is routinely upgraded, and the notch screen that has not changed for thousands of years has become a punch-hole screen. As a result, on the day of the press conference, Apple made this ordinary punch hole smart through a cool Dynamic Island promotional video, and even users could interact with it.
It is such a promotional video that has attracted many consumers, and in order to be able to experience the Dynamic Island, they are willing to pay for it. Like this year's iPhone 15 series, the dynamic island and 48 million pixel main camera of the previous generation Pro model were directly transferred to the volume model iPhone 15 15 15 Plus two models, and the iPhone 15 is equipped with a Type-C interface as standard.
In addition, this year's iPhone 15 models also use a new melt glass process, without changing the design of the iPhone back panel, the color scheme is very different from previous generations, making people see at a glance that this is the iPhone 15.
As the flagship model, the iPhone 15 Pro series has done a lot of work at the product marketing level, such as the world's first A17 Pro chip made of 3nm, playing 3A games on PC with a mobile phone, the iPhone 15 Pro series uses lighter and harder titanium material in the middle frame, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max exclusively occupies a 5x periscope telephoto. Apple is a big deal about consumers' replacement needs.
The most important point is that Apple will now take the initiative to put down its body, and less than two months after the release of the iPhone 15 series, you can see the iPhone 15 series models participating in the Double 11 discount event on various e-commerce platforms. Therefore, it is natural that Apple will become the first brother of mobile phones in 2023.
Huawei, the booster of Apple's mobile phone dream
However, before that, the big cake of the global smart hand market can be described as a three-legged tripod. Looking back at IDC's data in previous years, it is not difficult to find that Apple, which has been ranked second all year round, has been overtaken by Huawei and is approaching Samsung, which is in first place.
In 2019, among the top five manufacturers in terms of mobile phone shipments, only Apple had negative growth, with an overall decline of 85%。Huawei, which ranked second, was the most terrifying manufacturer in terms of growth, with an overall increase of 168%。
It should be noted that this is what Huawei has achieved after the second round of US sanctions. From this point, it is not difficult to see that Huawei's high-end models have been recognized by consumers around the world.
Even in 2020, Huawei can still withstand the pressure of US sanctions and win the world's third mobile phone market share. However, since 2021, Huawei has faded out of the top five in global mobile phone shipments. This also means that Huawei's previous mobile phone market share was divided by other manufacturers.
According to this logic, if Huawei had not been sanctioned at that time, the number one position in the global mobile phone market share in 2023 may not be Apple. In other words, if it weren't for Huawei giving up the market share of mobile phones, Samsung would not want to forge ahead, and the position of the first brother of mobile phones in 2023 is likely to be Huawei.
Apple was able to snatch the first place from Samsung this time, which is nothing more than to meet the three conditions of time, location, and people, the rise of domestic manufacturers, Huawei ceded market share, Samsung squeezed toothpaste, and then Apple passed a wave of gimmick marketing and preferential activities, and finally let Apple sit in the position of the first brother of mobile phones in 2023.