With iPhone sales tied to AI, Apple’s partnership with Alibaba could be the key to staying competitive against Huawei and other rising local brands.

Global smartphone shipments are up 7.8% YoY in Q1. Samsung leads, Apple slips, and Chinese brands gain.

Declining demand and rising costs are taking a toll. Samsung and Apple dominate the premium segment, leaving room for budget brands to thrive in emerging markets.

Satellite connectivity segment emerges from MWC 2023: Apple’s iPhone 14 may have ushered in the ability to access satellites for emergency communications, but the technology is now ripe for wider mainstream applications.

China’s loss is Vietnam’s gain: Apple is diversifying production into Southeast Asia as US relations with China deteriorate. Confidence in Vietnam’s production scalability could accelerate the shift away from China.

China’s economic woes squeeze smartphone growth: The largest market and producer of smartphones, rocked by monthslong lockdowns, is holding back global production and sales for the remainder of the year.

In 2022, Samsung is expected to ship 276 million smartphones worldwide, maintaining its lead over Apple, with 243 million.

China continues to lead the world in all things ecommerce, including innovation. Social commerce livestreaming is just one of many new stories for 2021 and beyond.

China’s smartphone market enters a new competitive era: The country’s smartphone market grew for the first time in four years, but it didn’t translate evenly for all players. Huawei’s sales continued to decline, leaving several smartphone competitors neck-and-neck in the race to claim top spot in China’s market.

There is increasing demand for 5G's potential to enable emerging technologies like autonomous driving, health tech and virtual and augmented reality.

Internet users are making the jump to smartphone usage, encouraged by falling prices for handsets. Between 2018 and 2022, the share of worldwide internet users with a smartphone will rise from 74.0% to 80.2%.