For the first quarter of 2017, Apple’s iPhone 7 has grabbed the title of the world’s best-selling smartphone. On Wednesday, research firm Strategy Analytics said it estimates 21.5 million iPhone 7 units shipped in the quarter, giving this single device a 6% share of the total smartphone market.
iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were the world’s best-selling smartphones
“The iPhone 7 is by far the world’s most popular smartphone model, due to a compelling blend of user-friendly design, extensive supporting apps, and widespread retail availability for the device,” said Juha Winter, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.
The second most popular handset is also Apple’s. The iPhone 7 Plus, with 17.4 million units sold, bagged the second spot, commanding a 5% market share worldwide. During Apple’s fiscal Q2 earnings call, CEO Tim Cook also acknowledged that the company had a hard time in keeping up with demand for the Plus version, notes CNBC. It could have been at the top spot beating even the iPhone 7 if enough units had been available.
OPPO’s R9s bagged the third spot with 8.9 million units (3% marketshare worldwide), while the Samsung Galaxy J3 and Galaxy J5 came in fourth and fifth with 6.1 million and 5 million units, respectively. Oppo is a pretty popular brand in China and India, but it is “largely unknown in the Western world,” the research firm said.
What’s interesting to note is that Apple phones are way ahead in unit sales than even lower-cost devices. And despite the Note 7 fiasco, Samsung was able to get two of its phones into the top five. Strategy Analytics director Linda Sui noted that the Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J3 helped the Korean company offset the “troubles with the Note 7 battery fiasco.”
iPhone 8 could help Apple in China
Strategy Analytics estimates will come as a big relief for Apple investors, especially after the iPhone maker reported a 1% drop in iPhone sales year over year. Cook attributed this drop in sales to the proliferation of iPhone 8 rumors. There are reports that iPhone sales are slowing in China, and this drop could be the result of that.
Apple was able to increase its revenue in all the markets it operates in except for China. Revenues from Greater China fell 14% year over year, compared to an increase of 11% in the U.S., notes BGR. Though the company does not break down the sales of each product by region, it can be assumed that the drop in revenue is linked to iPhone sales.
What makes this assumption even more real is that during the earnings conference call, the U.S. firm noted that both Macs and Services registered “strong double-digit revenue growth” in China. Cook noted that the iPhone 7 Plus did well in China, but the earlier generation iPhones “didn’t perform as well.”
Apple will be hoping to reverse its dropping revenue in China with the iPhone 8, which is expected to arrive later this year. A recent report from Economic Daily News claimed that the mass-production of the device is going according to schedule, and thus, the long-awaited handset will be announced in September and go on sale in October.
