Apple’s iPhone 7 was the world’s best-shipping smartphone in Q3 2017, with 13.0 million units shipped. The iPhone 6s was a distant second, after an uptick that resulted in 7.9 million shipments. Samsung’s Galaxy J2 Prime was third, with 7.8 million shipped, while Oppo took fourth and fifth place, with its A57 and R11 shipping 7.8 million and 7.2 million units respectively. Apple’s iPhone 8, which launched in mid-September, did not make the top five. Worldwide smartphone shipments reached 375.9 million, up 5.9% year on year.
Apple shipped 46.7 million smartphones in Q3 2017. The new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus accounted for 11.8 million of these. This falls well short of its predecessor, the iPhone 7 line, which topped 14 million in its first quarter. But while Apple shipped 5.4 million units of the iPhone 8, it shipped 6.3 million of the larger iPhone 8 Plus. This makes the iPhone 8 Plus the first iPhone Plus model to out-ship its smaller sibling in a single quarter.
“Shipments of older devices, such as the iPhone 6s and SE, saw an uptick in Q3,” said Canalys Analyst Ben Stanton in a statement. “The iPhone 7 also shipped strongly after its price cut in September. Apple grew in Q3, but it was these older, cheaper models that propped up total iPhone shipments. Apple is clearly making a portfolio play here. With the launch of the iPhone X, it now has five tiers of iPhone and delivers iOS at more price bands than ever before. This is a new strategy for Apple. It is aggressively defending its market share, but it will not compromise its rigid margin structure to do so.”
Samsung shipped 82.8 million smartphones in Q3, 8.2% more than in Q3 2016. This was thanks to growth in its J-series, which did particularly well in India and the Middle East. Samsung’s new Galaxy Note8 shipped 4.4 million units. For a product line aimed at driving value, not volume, this was a positive result.
“Samsung had a positive quarter,” said Stanton. “It discounted the Galaxy S8 in several major countries in Q3, which helped ease inventory buildup from the previous quarter. In total, it shipped 10.3 million devices from its Galaxy S8 range in Q3. But Samsung’s golden period of having a differentiated product has now ended. Apple, Google, Huawei and others have all introduced new smartphones with 18:9 displays and thin bezels. As the battleground at the high end moves toward AI and AR, Samsung is behind, and needs to catch up with competitors such as Huawei and Apple.”
Smartphone quarterly estimates, market share information and forecast data is taken from Canalys’ Smartphone Analysis service.
Source: Canalys
MacDailyNews Take: Samsung. Forever behind. Way behind. Big behind.
SEE ALSO:
T3 reviews Apple’s iPhone X: Brilliant, five stars, 2017’s best smartphone – November 8, 2017
DisplayMate: Apple’s iPhone X has the most color accurate display we’ve ever measured; it is visually indistinguishable from perfect – November 8, 2017
Ars Technica reviews iPhone X: Easy to recommend if you want a glimpse at the future – November 3, 2017
iMore reviews iPhone X: The best damn product Apple has ever made – November 2, 2017
TechCrunch reviews Apple’s iPhone X: ‘Like using the future of smartphones, today’ – November 1, 2017
Tim Bajarin’s first impression of Apple’s iPhone X: Face ID worked flawlessly – November 1, 2017
The Verge reviews Apple’s iPhone X: Clearly the best iPhone ever made, despite being marred by its ugly notch – November 1, 2017
Above Avalon’s first impressions of Apple’s iPhone X: ‘An entirely new iPhone experience’ – October 31, 2017
The Independent reviews Apple’s iPhone X: ‘This feels like the future’ – October 31, 2017
David Pogue reviews Apple’s iPhone X: ‘The best thing is its size’ – October 31, 2017
Forbes reviews Apple’s iPhone X: Opulent, gorgeous, classy; the best iPhone yet – October 31, 2017
CNBC reviews Apple’s iPhone X: ‘The best smartphone on the market’ – October 31, 2017
Why is it in these analyses it is never mentioned that Samsung has over 100 different models of phones and the bulk of their sales is at the extreme low end? I don’t understand why these groups always bend over backwards to find positives when with Apple it’s the opposite. That being said, at least the mentioned how behind Samsung is this time
Samsung needs to ramp up their thievery group so they can get back in the game.
Because it says smartphones…. If you want to get picky, Samsung doesn’t have a qualifying phone.