Despite a record third quarter in global shipments for Apple, Samsung shipped the most phones globally during Q3.
Despite posting record global Q3 iPhone shipments of 54.5 million units last quarter, it was Samsung that led the industry in smartphone deliveries over the three months from July through September. According to Canalys, Samsung shipped 57.5 million handsets during Q3 which included the release of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Galaxy Z Flip 6 foldables. Samsung had a 2% decline in the number of phones shipped year-over-year which resulted in a small decline in market share to 19%.
Apple grew its Q3 iPhone deliveries by 9% and the aforementioned record 54.5 million iPhone units shipped gave it an 18% market share. During last year’s third quarter, Samsung shipped 8.6 million more phones than Apple. That gap has been reduced by 65% to 3 million phones. Apple was helped by the late Q3 release of the new iPhone 16 series.
Canalys Analyst Le Xuan Chiew noted that Apple achieved record Q3 shipments driven by a strategic blend of channel and supply chain optimization. «Post-WWDC’s Apple Intelligence announcements, consumers are actively upgrading from older iPhone 12 and 13 models to embrace this new technology.
