Samsung Sells More in North America Than Last Year

The latest survey conducted by Canalys shows that the outstanding performance of the Galaxy S10 series smartphones has helped Samsung Electronics significantly reduce the gap with Apple in the smartphone market in North America.

According to data provided on May 9, Samsung Electronics shipped over 10.7 million smartphones in North America in the first quarter of 2019, up 3% from 10.3 million in the first quarter of last year. On the other hand, Apple’s shipments during this period totaled 14.6 million units, down 19% from 17.9 million units a year ago.

Apple’s market share is 40%, slightly lower than 40.3% a year ago, while Samsung’s market share jumped from 23.2% to 29.3%, and the gap with Apple narrowed to 10.7 percentage points.

In the first quarter of this year, smartphone shipments in the North American market were 36.4 million units, down 18% from the previous year. By the way, this is the lowest point in five years.

In addition, LG Electronics’ shipments fell by 24% from a year ago.

During this period, North America’s best-selling smartphone was the iPhone XR, which accounted for 13% (4.5 million units). The Galaxy S10 Plus and Galaxy S10e each sold 2 million units with a market share of 6%.

‘Samsung brought real differentiation to its Galaxy S10 devices. Its triple camera, ultra wide angle lens, hole-punch display and reverse wireless charging all raised consumer interest. While these technologies are not new, Samsung is among the first to bring them to the US in a mass market smartphone, and the appeal of such new features will be important for other launches this year. Samsung also benefited from carrier promotions in Q1, which used the Galaxy S10e as an incentive. But it will come under pressure later in 2019 as other vendors, such as OnePlus, follow suit with new features, while Google starts expanding into additional channels and price bands, and ZTE attempts to re-establish its footprint at the low end,’ said Canalys analyst Vincent Thielke.