In the third quarter of this year (July to September), smartphone shipments in the US grew sequentially (compared to the second quarter) by 21% to 31 million units, according to the latest report from Canalys.
This growth was driven by Apple’s release of the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, which accounted for 34% of all US iPhone sales in the third quarter despite being in sale only for a few days. However, the market fell 5% year-over-year.
Carrier promotions aimed at premium device upgrades helped keep the downward trend from worsening, but Apple’s very late release of the iPhone 15 series in the quarter means it saw an 8% drop in sales to 17, 2 million units compared to the same period in 2022.
Samsung shipped 6.8 million smartphones in the third quarter, with the Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5 accounting for 20% of that number, boosting its performance. In fact, Samsung’s market share in the US in terms of foldable devices stands at a very healthy 87%. Motorola reported its best quarter since Q2 2022, capturing 9% market share with 14% year-over-year shipment growth.
TCL and Google round out the top five, each with about 4% of the pie, with shipments of 1.3 million and 1.2 million units, respectively. According to analysts at Canalys, the US smartphone market is stabilizing, but “there is no expectation that the fourth quarter will see a turnaround.” However, Canalys expects a “slight recovery” in 2024.
Interestingly, the research firm says that there is a growing trend towards purchasing older generation phones, refurbished devices and holding on to current ones for longer. Therefore, fewer people are opting to upgrade to newer models, which impacts the market as a whole. “Despite robust sequential net additions of postpaid subscribers and upgrade fees from tier-1 operators, device sales still lag last year’s figures,” according to Canalys.
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