Apple ’s ascendancy in the world smartphone market place keep well into the sundown geological era of 2024 , but Samsung grapple to make a find after a drought stretch out all the elbow room back to 2018 . Counterpoint Research just released its latestGlobal Handset Model Sales Tracker reportcovering phones betray worldwide between January and November last year , showcasing Apple ’s exploiter dominance at the top despite the iPhone ’s premium prickle damage .
TheiPhone 15,iPhone 15 Pro Max , andiPhone 15 Protook the top three spot in the same order . The fifth , 8th , and 9th positions were grab by theiPhone 16 Pro Max , iPhone 14 , andiPhone 16 Pro , respectively . The only other premium phone in the list come from Samsung , marking a crucial milestone for the company ’s flagship Galaxy S line .
The year 2024 marked the first time that a Galaxy S serial phone appeared in the global top - selling smartphone list after a disruption of over half a decennium . TheGalaxy S24 Ultra’simpressive sales , according to Counterpoint , are a event of Samsung ’s productive AI tools offering a novel experience boulevard for emptor .
“ The maturation can be attributed to it being the first smartphone with GenAI capabilities , get significant consumer interest . Samsung ’s accent on these innovative features has leave in strong market carrying out and a first - removal company vantage , ” notice Counterpoint Research Analyst Harshit Rastogi in a insistency statement shared with Digital Trends .
A surprise win
Samsung was one of the first smartphone shaper to make a big flock about productive AI experiences on smartphones . The company is currently marketing its stack as Galaxy AI , and double down on it with the arrival of Galaxy S25 series earlier this year .
While generative AI peter have n’t quite managed to revolutionize the smartphone experience , and a healthy bunch of them are quite gimmicky , there are still a few caper that can prove to be useful on a day to day basis .
For example , Samsung ’s focus on accessibility , especially the live rendering tool and interpreter mode , have been executed well . There are still some uncut corners with understanding local speech pattern , but the practical utility is definitely there .
“ It ’s designed to give citizenry back time , and make the great unwashed ’s living easier . It ’s technology to help oneself you live a good life . ” Annika Bizon , Samsung ’s senior director of marketing and omnichannel in the U.K. and Ireland , recentlytold Digital Trends .
For folk who prefer a spattering of sport redaction control over their pic , there are a whole crowd of AI - attend tricks usable for Galaxy S smartphone users . If you are intrigued to get a appreciation , Digital Trends put outan exhaustive guide on how to habituate those fun toolsand what to anticipate .
Though it is n’t quite the best . In a side - by - side comparability with Apple ’s own solution that arrived with Apple Intelligence , the iPhone ’s takeproved to be more accurate in Digital Trend ’s testing . Notably , Apple ’s arrival to the “ AI Phone ” race was quite late , and some its own servings , such as the news summaries , have been so terrible that the company had to put them on a pause .
Samsung , on the other manus , has onlydoubled down on its AI effort . At the Unpacked event this yr , the company introduced Now Bar and Now Brief , which essentially keep you updated on a whole bunch of stuff , from upcoming confluence and wellness stats to quick ascendency for a variety of activities .
Call Assist can translate voices in literal time , while Chat Assist will do the same for text edition - based conversation . Browsing Assist will summarize web varlet , Transcript Assist will work its thaumaturgy ( read : written text , summarization , and transformation ) via the Recorder app . There are assistive writing tricks , a la Apple ’s Writing Tools , in the Notes app .
Audio Eraser and Drawing Assist are among the fresh wave of AI feature announced in 2025 , both of which already have a similitude within Apple ’s phone and tablet ecosystem . Irrespective of whether the contention was first to these AI conveniences , it seems Samsung ’s Galaxy AI focus has definitely struck a chord with Galaxy S buyers .
“ In terms of purpose case right now , these committal to writing supporter , AI committal to writing , those kind ( sic ) of puppet are very helpful to them , ” Tarun Pathak , Research Director at Counterpoint , said in an fundamental interaction with The Core in the first place this year . He added that consumers are not excited about the whole AI packet , but in the next few years , agentic AI might generate a meaningful shift .
