Despite a weakening in smartphone sales over the past two years, the battle remains tough to stay at the top of the world rankings. According to a study published by the IHS Markit Institute on June 6, Apple still reigns with its latest models despite the critics.
In the first quarter of 2018, the iPhone X, released last fall, was the world’s best-selling smartphone, selling 12.7 million units. The iPhone 8 came in second place with 8.5 million models.
A total of 345 million smartphones were sold worldwide in three months.
The Apple company shares the top 10 with Samsung over the quarter, which is not a surprise at all. The South Korean company comes in third with its Galaxy Grand Prime Plus, an entry-level model, sold at 8.3 million units. Of this top 10, Apple sold 40.6 million smartphones, or more than 10% of the global total, compared to 35.3 million for Samsung.
A slump in the market
However, these figures mark a setback for the two giants. As IHS Markit reminds us, Apple has seen combined sales of its new models rise from 35.6 million in the first quarter of 2017 to 21.2 million this year with the iPhone X and iPhone 8.
The market in 2017 seemed slightly fairer with Huawei’s Honor 5A in 9th place (5.1 million sales) and Vivo X9 in 10th place (4.3 million). According to IHS Markit, the disappearance of Chinese brands from the top 10 in the first quarter of 2018 is partly due to delayed launches.
Top of the range products reign
In detail, the high-end seems to win the favour of consumers. While the 2017 top 10 featured models like the iPhone SE or Galaxy Grand Prime Plus, only the latter and two other Samsung devices belong to the lower end. These figures confirm a trend identified by manufacturers.
If Apple seems to dominate this top 10 with its head and shoulders, this ranking does not favour manufacturers offering many models, such as Samsung, Huawei or Xiaomi. For 2017 as a whole, Samsung remains the world’s leading manufacturer with 21.6% of smartphones sold, compared with 14.7% for its rival Apple.