South Korean giant Samsung has become the world’s largest smartphone vendor in the first quarter of 2024, according to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).
By the end of 2023, the leader for the first time was U.S.-based Apple Inc. Smartphone shipments in the world in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 7.8% year-on-year to 289.4 million units, IDC said in a preliminary report. The growth marked the third consecutive quarter of growth, indicating the market’s recovery from a two-year slump.
Samsung’s sales were down 0.7% year-on-year, while Apple’s sales fell 9.6%. Meanwhile, China’s Xiaomi increased shipments by a third, while the Transsion brand recorded a growth of nearly 85% and climbed to fourth on the list of the world’s largest smartphone vendors.
“As expected, the smartphone market recovery continues amid a gradual increase in optimism for leading brands,” said Ryan Rieth, vice president of Worldwide Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. – Apple fell out of the lead late last year, but Samsung successfully regained the top spot in the first quarter.”
IDC analysts expect Samsung and Apple to continue to dominate the top price segment, but also point to the potential for further growth and diversification by brandos such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Transsion, OPPO/OnePlus and vivo.
Apple on Tuesday unveiled the iPhone 15 line and an updated smartwatch, the Apple Watch Series 9. The event was broadcast on the company’s YouTube channel.
One of the main distinguishing features of the new series of smartphones (iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max) is the transition from the Lightning charging port to the USB Type-C connector. Also, all devices will have Dynamic Island, a notch on the screen for the front camera that works as a separate mini-screen. Previously, it was only available in the iPhone 14 Pro.
The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will be equipped with A16 Bionics processors, which were introduced last year with the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. The new Pro versions come with the A17 Pro processor.
The budget versions of the iPhone 15 will come in five new colors: black, blue, green, yellow, and pink. The Pro versions will have a titanium body in four shades to choose from. The diagonal of the screens of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro is 6.1 inches, and the iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro Max are 6.7 inches.
According to the presentation, prices for the iPhone 15 will start at $799 (128 GB), and for the iPhone 15 Plus – at $899. The minimum price of iPhone 15 Pro is $999, iPhone 15 Pro Max – $1199. All smartphones of the series will be available for pre-order on September 15.
A new S9 processor has been announced for the Apple Watch Series 9 smartwatch. The maximum screen brightness has been increased to 2000 nits – Apple reports that the display is twice as bright as the previous version. In addition, the Double Tap function will appear. It allows the user to control the watch without touching the screen – by moving his fingers on the hand on which he wears the watch. Prices for the new watch will start at $399.
Apple Watch Ultra 2 is equipped with an even brighter screen – up to 3000 nits. The corporation promises 36 hours of battery life in normal mode and 72 hours in power saving mode. The minimum price of this version is $799.
In addition, during the presentation, Apple announced its intention to reach carbon neutrality by 2030.
The first official batch of Apple products – more than 8,000 Iphone 13 smartphones – arrived at the Boryspil airport on October 9, the State Customs Service of Ukraine said on its Facebook page.
“In total, more than 8,000 smartphones of the Iphone 13 line with a declared value of more than $7.5 million arrived in Ukraine. The State Customs Service of Ukraine has begun customs clearance of goods,” the post says.
Earlier it was reported that on June 30, Apple opened an official office in Ukraine. Also, Apple will deliver the entire line of its products and open a service point for servicing its products.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky discussed with Apple CEO Tim Cook the census project and the Ukrainization of Siri’s personal assistant, the press service of the Ukrainian leader said.
“It was about the population census project, which Apple successfully implemented in the United States, and the possibility of cooperation in the implementation of a similar task in Ukraine,” the press service said.
The parties also discussed the possibility of Apple building a data center for iCloud services in Ukraine, following the example of the center, which was built in Denmark. They also touched upon the Ukrainian localization of Apple products, including Siri personal assistant.
Zelensky told Cook about the achievements of our country in the IT sphere and expressed interest in further expanding Apple’s presence in Ukraine, in particular through online support teams, Apple Music and AppStore moderators, as well as device maintenance service.
“Today Ukraine is a powerful global IT hub. Our specialists successfully cooperate with Fortune 500 companies, including Apple,” he said.
The head of state presented the Diia.City project to the Apple CEO.
In addition, during the meeting, the parties discussed the possibility of cooperation in the direction of education in the field of programming for schoolchildren, students, veterans, medical workers, as well as providing schools and teachers with computers to support those programs that are already being implemented in Ukraine.
Apple has officially opened an office in Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov wrote on Telegram.
Now, according to him, the company will directly import equipment to Ukraine and control the stores of official dealers.
“This is important news. The opening of the Apple office will strengthen our image in the international arena and in the future will help attract new investments,” Fedorov said.
Also, from June 29, 2021, support for Apple users in Ukrainian became available.
“For more than a year now, our team has been communicating with both the European and American offices of the company. Together we plan to launch new Apple services for Ukrainian users,” Fedorov said.
The fruit and berry harvest in Ukraine this season could fall by 25% compared with the previous one due to unfavorable weather conditions, Chairman of the Ukrainian Association of Agrarian Export Dmytro Kroshka has said.
“The upcoming season will definitely become less fruitful compared to the previous one. We can see a 25% decline in production at industrial farms of pome, stone fruit and berry crops that are traditionally grown in Ukraine. Manufacturers complain of the rainy spring, dry summer, hail due to rapid temperature changes. There are still two months ahead, which, due to weather conditions, will be, like a lottery, for producers of pome crops,” he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Kroshka, the harvest of apples in Ukraine in the current season from industrial producers can fall by 30%.
“If in 2018 we collected 655,000 tonnes of apples of different quality and different varieties, today we expect a total harvest of 460,000 tonnes, which will definitely have an impact on the entire market and the production of derivative products,” the head of the association said.
In 2018, industrialists harvested 45,000 tonnes of stone fruit crops, this year the harvest could be about 38,000 tonnes.
“We expect a decline in the production of traditional berry crops in Ukraine due to weather and climatic conditions from 26,000 tonnes to 23,000 tonnes. At the same time, due to the start of fruiting of significant areas with blueberry, the production of this crop will be increased. Last year, we collected about 3,000 tonnes of this crop, this year we will reach 4,000 tonnes, which is significant for the Ukrainian market, and we predict that by the results of the next marketing year we will see export growth,” Kroshka said.
He said that it would be logical against this background to increase prices for the entire range of fruit and berry products made in Ukraine. The most tangible may be an increase in the price of apples, while the price of blueberries may remain stable or even decline. At the same time, the ratio of high and low quality of the harvested fruit and berry crops in the production structure remains unknown.
Kroshka also said that in the 2018/2019 season, Ukraine’s exports of apples increased 1.6 times, to 55,600 tonnes thanks to the demand for Ukrainian apples, at the same time, export of pears decreased 41%, to 434 tonnes.
Ukraine increased the export of walnut for this period by 45%, to 48,500 tonnes and this figure will continue to grow thanks to the entry into the fruiting of the nut trees, the area under which is expanding from year to year.
The head of the association said that a reduction in the export of stone fruit crops (cherry varieties, plums) is influenced by the lack of technology for presale preparation of products in terms of cooling, packaging of products. In addition, exports are constrained by undeveloped logistics for the supply of fresh stone fruit products.
“We have a serious drop in plum exports [from 8,000 tonnes to 133 tonnes]. This is due to the fact that the main market for Ukrainian plums was the EU, where last season local producers had large production volumes. Ukrainian producers were not able to compete with European and sold plums mainly in the domestic market,” Kroshka said.
According to him, the export of berry crops (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries) decreased in the season 2018/2019, which is due to the insufficient provision of presale preparation for fresh crops.
