Samsung remained the market leader in the third quarter of the year. After Canalys, IDC reports that Samsung was the biggest smartphone vendor in Q3, 2024, beating its close rival, Apple with a margin of 1.8 million units.

IDC report says the global smartphone market grew by 4% with 316.1 million units shipped in the third quarter of 2024. Interestingly, the market growth was led by strong growth from Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Huawei.

Per the report Samsung sold 57.8 million units, securing 18.3% market share in Q3 2024. Last year, the company seized a 19.6% share by selling 59.5 million Galaxy phones. Notably, Samsung’s YoY growth was negative despite the global recovery.

Samsung maintained the leadership crown despite shipments decreasing marginally. The company continues to grow its share in the premium segment as the average prices increased in the quarter driven by a stronger mix of Galaxy AI-enabled models.

The worldwide #smartphone market has seen a growth of 4.0% YoY in 3Q24. See below for key data and insight from IDC analysts.

Full Press Release: https://t.co/OIAcoBSCNG pic.twitter.com/NLCXGLtWBy

— IDC (@IDC) October 16, 2024

Apple grabbed a 17.7% market share, with sales recorded at 56 million in the third quarter. The company grew 3.5% YoY, up from 54.1 million iPhone shipments, while market share declined merely 0.1%.

The US phone maker will continue to grow in the upcoming US holiday season. Many customers will likely upgrade from the iPhone 13, iPhone 12, and prior models to a new Apple Intelligence-powered iPhone 16 series.

Xiaomi retained its third spot, with shipments were 42.8 million and 13.5% market share in Q3. Last year, the company shipped 41.5 million units with a market share of 13.6%. The company’s YoY growth stalled, with a negligible 0.1% decline.

Other Chinese vendors; OPPO and vivo sold 28.8 and 27 million phones, respectively. The former had 9.1% market share, while the latter had 8.5%. Other vendors collectively sold 103.7 million smartphones up from 99.6 million in the last year.

Workers at Samsung India finally ended the 37-day-long strike. The country seeks foreign investment from leading vendors. However, such a long-standing strike hurt the ambitions of the national and state governments.

Samsung welcomed the decision by CITU to call off the strike at the plant, which employs about 1,800 workers and makes refrigerators, TVs, and washing machines. The company also noted that no actions would be taken against participants.

“We will not take action against workers who merely participated” in the strike, Samsung India said, without elaborating on whether it is planning any action against certain workers.

We might not see any administrative actions against certain employees. It’s a big relief for Samsung India that the strike has been called off. However, the company hasn’t clarified if certain workers are under the radar for potential actions.

This strike is the biggest dispute faced by the company’s Indian unit in years. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions supported the company’s workers union. Samsung also sued the striking union in the initial days when tensions rose.

Govt of Indian state Tamil Nadu, where Samsung’s production fab is located, confirmed the strike has ended. It came after representatives from the Samsung management and striking workers had participated in the talks.

With the stable release of Android 15, along with several new features, satellite messaging has now become available for a few Android devices. The feature allows you to send and receive messages via satellite when you are outside of cellular or Wi-Fi coverage areas. It is particularly useful in emergencies or in remote areas where normal network coverage is unavailable.

To be specific, who can use this? Satellite messaging in Android 15 has started to come for users with compatible devices, like the Google Pixel series, and specific carriers like T-Mobile (thanks to Elon Musk’s Starlink).

For T-Mobile users running eligible devices with the latest Android 15 OS, you can access this feature by going through Settings > Network & Internet > SIMs > T-Mobile and tapping on Satellite Messaging. Don’t forget, you still need an eligible T-Mobile plan to use satellite messaging.

As of now, this is limited to a few devices which are expected to be available for more devices with necessary hardware requirements in the future.

Keep in mind, even though Android 15 includes this emergency feature, you might not see it right away. This can depend on your phone model, where you live, or which mobile service you use.

Just for your information, Apple has already enabled satellite communication for its iPhones.