The much predicted – or hoped for – recovery in smartphone sales after two years of decline occurred at the end of 2023, but immediately ran into supply chain clouds laced with a silver lining of great expectations from Generative AI. While shipments for 2023 decreased a further 4% to 1.1 billion units as the slump continued for most of the year, the recovery took hold in Q4 with an 8% jump year-on-year to 320 million units, according to bean-counting firm Canalys. This ended seven consecutive quarters of decline, culminating with Apple taking over from Samsung at number one in the annual rankings, albeit by a narrow margin with both close to 20% on unit shares. Apple surged ahead in…