I think you are incorrect on the comparison. Samsung sold ~55mil of S7 which translate on avg to 14mil per quarter. The 7.2mil was the tail end. But apple figures were from when I7 was still fresh. Also you are forgetting samsung has the other Note flagship which also sold in the region of S7. Put them together, that's maybe 28mil per quarter on average. And samsung other top volume seller is the mid-range A-series which pricing is in the region of Iphone SE/prev generation (that contributed a significant proportion of total Apple sales).
Even after losing one flagship Note 7, Samsung volume growth/decline is similar to Apple for same period. A decline in volume given market overall growth was 4% is not really a good thing. Even with Samsung trouble, Apple cannot capitalize on that and let all the extra volume gobbled up by Chinese brands. This shows iphone is losing its attractiveness. I bet if Samsung didnt have the Note 7 issue, Apple figures would be worse.
We just have to see next 2 quarters when the S8 sales are in full swing to see how Iphone sales will be negatively impacted. If iphone 8 is mediocre then the Note 8 (+ other flagships from China brands) may give a huge blow to Apple for late this year/early next year.
The problem with this logic is that you are setting up Apple to fail regardless. Apple is by far the most successful company in the smartphone business, there is no discussion. And even in mature market where sales, especially in the high-price market has started to stagnate Apple is still selling a butload of phones. More than any other, and yet people act like this is bad thing? And this is even with phones that are not drastically different from the ones they've been selling for the past 3,5 years.
If we are only going by the metric that Apple needs to keep growth year over year they are doomed to fail in the long run. They operating in a high priced market, they are already selling phones in numbers that is so large that it's ridiculous to begin with to expect and demand continuous growth is just foolish at this point.
And what numbers to we have to back up the fact that the failure that was Galaxy Note 7 have been fuelling Apple sales? People who wanted the Galaxy Note 7 most likely has a reason for why the prefer Android to begin with. For them to instantaneously jump ships over to iPhone and iOS just because the Galaxy Note 7 became a failure seems far fetched. It's more likely that the failure of the Galaxy Note 7 is the sole reason why Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge sold more than expected (still far less than iPhone) as Samsung really pushed Galaxy Note customers towards the S7 and S7 Edge. It's much more sensible that potential Galaxy Note 7 customers got themselves the Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge, or waited for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ or even the Galaxy Note 8 instead of going for iPhone.
And by what metrics is the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus considered "fresh" in Q1 2017? The phone was released in Q3 2016, so it's half way through it's life cycle when we are talking about numbers in Q1 2017. And you are really miscalculating if you expect the Galaxy Note to have the same average sale per quarter as the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. The S-series has always been outselling the Note-series. How often do you see people with Galaxy Notes compared to Galaxy S-series of phones? And why would we take phones like Samsung's A-series into the equation? It's the different market, it's priced way below iPhone's, even the iPhone SE and it catering to a different market segment where Apple doesn't exist.
The thing is, it's stupid to proclaim Apple is failing when they still sell 50+ millions per quarter, of high-priced, high margin phones when even their largest competitor isn't even pushing half of that amount. Of course Apple is seeing negative growth. No tree grows into heaven, and to expect Apple to keep the growth every year when they are selling in the premium, high-price market and is already selling as many phones as they are what did people expect?
