Samsung and iPhone have been the two best-selling smartphones for quite some time now. In fact, ever since the release of the first iPhone, this smartphone, in a way, ruled the world and was soon followed by the Samsung Galaxy, ever since the first Galaxy was launched. Let us do a brief historical retrospective and see what where the key market events were in the period from 2007 up until 2019 before we looked at the Samsung vs iPhone market share in 2019.
A Brief Historical Retrospective
The first two years after the release of the first version of the iPhone, things didn't look brilliant in terms of sales. By the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, the iPhone had established itself on the market and was regularly selling millions of units on a quarterly basis. By 2011, the sales figures per quarter exceeded 30 million, and this trend continued in the course of the following decade, or to be more precise nine years.
The iPhone is particularly popular in the US, and here, Apple reigns supreme. The US market is the largest and the most important, so we will look at the Samsung vs iPhone market share in 2019 in the US and see which one is more popular.
The first version of the Samsung Galaxy was launched in 2010, and after a year and a half or two years, Samsung managed to sell as many units as Apple during one quarter. Globally speaking, Samsung has been selling more units than Apple pretty much regularly, but it lags behind in the US.
A twist in the last quarter
Globally, Samsung's vs. iPhone market share in 2019 looked pretty much the same as the market shares in previous years. During the first three quarters, Samsung sold over 200 million Galaxy units, whereas Apple sold only slightly over 100 million. That is a significant difference, but it should be noted that Samsung has other smartphones in addition to the Galaxy. These cheaper, lower-end smartphones are often included in the sales figures.
Something interesting happened in the final quarter of the year. Apple sold more units than Samsung, which is something that hadn't happened years before. Namely, Apple sold 73 million iPhones in 2019 Q4, whereas Samsung sold about 70 million.
The difference between the two companies isn't that great in terms of sales figures, because the market share of both companies was close to 18%. During the third quarter of 2019, Samsung's market share was 21%, whereas Apple's was merely 12%. The difference in the previous quarter was even larger – 21% against 10%.
A reserve situation in the US
The Samsung vs iPhone market share 2019 US edition looked a bit different. Apple's market share in the US in 2019 exceeded 40% in every quarter, except the first quarter when it was 39%. That was also the quarter when Samsung came closer – 28%. During the second quarter of 2019, Apple's market share was 41%, whereas Samsung's market share was 21%. Apple's market share in the fourth quarter was 49% and Samsung only reached 20%. In other words, pretty much every other smartphone sold in the US was an iPhone.