The US smartphone market’s sell-in decreased 4 per cent (on-year) in Q3, driven mainly by Apple and Samsung weakness, a report showed on Thursday.
Apple’s shipments were down primarily due to lower demand resulting from continued low upgrade rates as reported by the three major US carriers in Q3 2024, according to Counterpoint Research’s latest US Market Monitor Quarterly Smartphone Tracker.
Research Director Jeff Fieldhack said that Apple sell-in was muted in Q3. However, we did see September sales up 6 per cent as Apple benefitted from an earlier iPhone 16 launch.
“At launch, we saw many users of older iPhone generations upgrade, helping initial sales. We believe Apple Intelligence will motivate upgraders in the future, but this upgrade period was not a significant driver,” said Fieldhack.
Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Fold 6 in July this year, which caused shipments to fall into June. This, combined with softer demand for foldabes this year, resulted in the 13 per cent YoY unit decline for Samsung.
Motorola continued to be aggressive – especially within prepaid channels – increasing shipments 21 per cent YoY.
Google Pixel sell-in share grew to 4 per cent, its highest Q3 market share to-date.
Senior analyst Maurice Klaehne said that the Pixel 9 series had a staggard launch this year starting at the end of August with the Pixel 9 and 9 Pro XL, followed by the 9 Pro and 9 Pro Fold in the beginning of September.
“This helped increase shipments in the quarter compared to the October launch of the Pixel 8 series. The Pixel 9 Pro XL cracked the top ten best-selling premium smartphones in the quarter. We expect GenAI smartphones to perform well in Q4 as more software updates for both iOS and Android get released,” Klaehne added.