The global smartphone market has faced numerous challenges over the recent years, with 2024 not showing signs of improvement, making the path to recovery even more prolonged.

The overall number of smartphones shipped over the past ten years has continued to rise despite these challenges, reaching a staggering 14 billion units, according to data from AltIndex.com.

Even as emerging markets show growth, global smartphone sales have suffered due to component shortages, inventory buildup, and extended replacement cycles, leading to a loss in sales amounting to USD 15 billion over three years.

Projections by Statista indicate that global smartphone sales are expected to bring in USD 486 billion in revenue in 2024, a decline from the previous high of over USD 500 billion in 2021.

Despite setbacks, IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker survey indicates that more than 14 billion smartphones have been shipped globally since the first quarter of 2014, with the peak years between 2015 and 2017 averaging 1.4 billion shipments.

The Covid-19 pandemic saw a significant drop in shipments to 1.28 billion in its first year, and despite a short recovery in 2021, the trend of declining shipments continued through 2022 and 2023, down by another 13 percent.

Analyzed by vendors, Samsung leads with 2.99 billion units shipped in the past decade, outpacing its closest competitor, Apple, by 743 million units, with Apple shipping 2.24 billion smartphones since 2014.