We have seen a couple of smartphones since the summer of last year and the performances of these devices widely vary. According to data obtained from Strategy Analytics, it appears that the World’s smartphone market is dominated by Apple’s iPhone. The data showed that iPhone X is the best selling smartphone in the world so far with 16 million units shipped in the first quarter of 2018 which accounts for 4.6% of the 354 million smartphones worldwide. However, the next three spots are still occupied by Apple’s devices. We have iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone 7 which recorded shipments of 12.5 million units, 8.3 million units, and 5.6 million units respectively to occupy second, third and fourth spots respectively. These top four smartphones collectively make up 42.40 million units with a total share of about 11.9%. If we are to add other Apple smartphones, iPhones will have nearly 50 million units in the first quarter of 2018 (Apple’s own financial report states 55.2 million units).
Apple’s performance was anticipated but nobody expected that the next device after these iPhones will be a low-end entry-level smartphone – the Xiaomi Redmi 5A. This device is the fifth best selling smartphone in the world after shipping 5.4 million units in Q1 2018 and has a share of 1.6%. The Redmi 5A is very popular in China and India which helped its sales.
Ranked sixth is Samsung Galaxy S9+ with 5.3 million units and a 1.5% share. This is quite impressive given that the Galaxy S9/S9+ was only listed at the end of the first quarter. Of course, if Samsung does not lose the Chinese market, this data will certainly be even better.