Though it will not come as surprising news to industry watchers, a new report compiling sales channel data from 35 countries puts Apple, Samsung and China-based Xiaomi as the only three companies really selling smartphones. What may be surprising to some, however, is just how well the iPhone line is doing overall; in addition to the iPhone 5s being the clear winner as the top-selling model, the much-maligned iPhone 5c took fifth place, followed by the two-and-a-half-year-old iPhone 4S in sixth place.
Sales channel data from 35 countries compiled by Counterpoint shows that the iPhone 5s remained the world’s best-selling phone as of May, some eight months after its launch. This backs up a report from ABI Research that the phone had retained the number one slot through Q1. “Apple’s iPhone 5s continues to be the bestselling phone in the world, a spot that many expected to be taken by Samsung’s Galaxy S 5. The highly anticipated Galaxy S5 comes in at second place but still a quite distant number two in terms of (sell through) unit sales.” The news wasn’t quite so good for the iPhone 5c, which came in at number 5, behind both the Samsung S5 and last year’s S4 – as well as the company’s Note 3 phablet. The iPhone 4S keeps on trucking: two-and-a-half years after its release, Counterpoint shows it at number 6 – one notch down from ABI’s Q1 data. Overall, Samsung has roughly twice Apple’s market share thanks to a huge range of handsets at all price levels, a statistic that is unlikely to keep Tim Cook awake at night even if market share doesn’tincrease, as Apple takes home the lion’s share of the profits – something you can watch in real-timethanks to an interactive graphic.
