The global smartphone market has been reportedly been on a downward trend after an initial pandemic-induced increase in spending on smartphones weaned off over the past year, adding to which are an economic slowdown and a record increase in inflation. Meanwhile, another report has suggested that continued inventory pressure, low demand, and semiconductor shortage are going to further decrease shipments for Samsung devices. These factors reportedly have set Apple up to overtake Samsung in the fourth quarter of 2022 as the brand with the highest market share in smartphones worldwide.

Global smartphone market share in the third quarter of 2022 managed to add a total of 289 million units, according to a report by TrendForce. When compared with year-on-year data, this translates to an 11 percent decline. Meanwhile, there was also a decline of 0.9 percent when compared with the global smartphone market share in the second quarter of 2022.

According to the above-mentioned report, Samsung will concede its top position in the global smartphone market to Apple with the iPhone maker rising to hold 24.6 percent from the previous 17.6 percent market share. On the other hand, the Galaxy smartphone maker slides to 20.2 percent from the previous 22.2 percent market share.

Samsung only managed to add 64.2 million units through device production in the third quarter of 2022. The decline is being predicted to continue in the fourth quarter of 2022, which could help rival Apple to overtake the South Korean conglomerate in overall charts.

Meanwhile, another report by BusinessKorea also asserts that the picture may not get any better for Samsung in the fourth quarter as the company tried to combat continued inventory pressure, low demand, and a semiconductor shortage.

The Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker managed to add 50.8 million units in the third quarter. Although smaller in number as compared to Samsung, Apple is generally known to experience its best demand in the last quarter of the year. To add, a reallocation of demand from Huawei and optimal pricing of newer smartphone models seemed to have helped Apple in the third quarter of 2022.

Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo came in at third, fourth, and fifth position, respectively, on the global smartphone market share for the third quarter of 2022.

Meanwhile, according to the statistics website GlobalStatsCounter, Xiaomi is still retaining its position as the leader in the Indian smartphone market as of November 2022 with a 25.27 percent hold, followed by Vivo and Samsung, at 16.5 percent and 16.05 percent, respectively.