US smartphone shipments declined 24% YoY in Q2 2023, according to Counterpoint Research’s Market Monitor data. This was the third consecutive quarter of YoY declines. Android brands like Samsung, Motorola and TCL-Alcatel saw the steepest declines in shipments, while Apple’s shipments were more resilient. As a result, Apple’s share of shipments increased YoY.
There is a good reason why Sony stopped advertising their phones in US and stopped all carrier partnership it is due to low sales and huge loss from continuing their previous strategy. That cut was the reason why they were able to make some profit in 2020. You can read about it here.
You are saying stopping to cater the enthusiast market is the reason why Android is losing to iPhone for market share and they will lose more when iPhone comes with USB-C. If these enthusiasts where the key to marketshare why would they move to iPhone which is more restrictive? If USB-C is all it needs to sway enthusiasts, what is even the point with Android phones that support SD card and headphone jack? If you look at Samsung Smartphone divisions earnings and profit(from April 2023), it is actually up YoY even when global smartphone shipments have declined. Clearly it looks like they know what they are doing, they are making more profit even with less units being shipped.