Apple's smartphone shipments rose in the third quarter, according to a closely watched industry tracker, thanks to strong demand for its flagship device and the artificial intelligence-enabled iPhone 16 lineup launched in September.
Quarterly shipments of Apple's iPhones rose 3.5% from a year earlier to 56.0 million units, with its market share relatively steady at 17.7%, preliminary data from research firm International Data Corp. showed Monday.
Third-quarter sales of older iPhone models, especially the iPhone 15, did "exceptionally well," IDC said, attributing the growth to heavy promotions and Apple Intelligence marketing efforts.
With the holiday season approaching, Apple's smartphone sales will likely continue to grow as consumers look to replace their devices with new AI-enabled ones, the research firm said.
In the third quarter, global smartphone shipments rose 4.0% to 316.1 million units, IDC said.
Rival Samsung Electronics remained the world's largest smartphone seller despite shipments falling 2.8% to 57.8 million units during the period.
Samsung continued to grow its share in the premium segment, with average prices of its smartphones rising in the quarter, driven by a stronger mix of AI-enabled models, said Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for data and analytics at IDC.
Chinese companies including Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei led the strong growth during the quarter, IDC said. Xiaomi's shipments rose 3.3% to 42.8 million units, making it the No. 3 seller of smartphones worldwide.
