(Yicai) Jan. 17 -- Apple shipped the most smartphones worldwide last year, surpassing its South Korean rival Samsung Electronics for the first time, which had dominated the league table for 13 years, according to International Data Corporation.

Apple's phone shipments tallied 234.6 million units in 2023, taking a record market share of more than 20 percent, while Samsung delivered about 226.6 million for a 19.4 percent share, IDC said in a report published on Jan. 15. China's Xiaomi, Oppo Mobile Telecommunications, and Transsion Holdings ranked in the top five.

Global mobile shipments fell 3.2 percent to a 10-year low of around 1.17 billion mainly due to economic challenges and elevated inventory early in the year, IDC noted. But the figure rose 8.5 percent to 326.1 million in the fourth quarter, cementing an expected recovery for this year, it pointed out.

"While we saw some strong growth from low-end Android players like Transsion and Xiaomi in the second half of 2023, stemming from rapid growth in emerging markets, the biggest winner is clearly Apple," said Nabila Popal, research director at IDC's Worldwide Tracker team. 

"Apple's ongoing success and resilience is in large part due to the increasing trend of premium devices, which now represent over 20 percent of the market, fueled by aggressive trade-in offers and interest-free financing plans," Popal added.

Apple had a 25 percent market share in the fourth quarter, while Samsung held 16 percent, compared with 24 percent and 19.8 percent, respectively, a year earlier, IDC said. Xiaomi ranked third with 12.5 percent, Transsion was fourth with 8.6 percent, and Vivo Communication Technology ended fifth with 7.4 percent.

Samsung's declining sales mainly accounted for Apple's better shipments last year, Toby Zhu, a senior analyst at Canalys, told Yicai. The US firm performed strongly in China during the first half of last year, but faced more severe competition in the second half, he added. 

The global handset market will grow 4 percent this year, according to Canalys' forecast. The jump in fourth-quarter shipments ended seven consecutive quarters of decline, its 

Editors: Shi Yi, Martin Kadiev