Top 7 Best-Selling Smartphones Last Year Were All iPhones

[MacRumors]

Apple's iPhone models dominated the top 10 best-selling smartphones in 2023, with only Samsung's mid-range devices making the list, according to Counterpoint Research's Global Monthly Handset Model Sales Tracker.

Apple took all top seven positions – a first for the company. iPhone 14 models made up the top three for the series to become the best-selling smartphone of 2023, with the US and China making up half of its sales. The model contributed 19% of the total iPhone sales for 2023.

The iPhone 13 came fourth largely thanks to popularity in Japan and India, while iPhone 15 models took the fifth, sixth, and seventh slots, with the iPhone 15 Pro Max the best-selling model in Apple's newest lineup, despite its relatively late launch in September last year. From the tracker report:

Apple's total sales remained flat in 2023 even as major competitors declined. This stability was partly due to a significant boost from emerging markets like India and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). In 2023, India became the fifth smartphone market to exceed 10 million iPhone unit sales in a single year, highlighting the market's growing importance for Apple. These factors contributed to the iPhone 15 series sales matching the performance of the iPhone 14 series in 2022.

Samsung's budget A series devices filled eighth, ninth, and tenth positions, thanks to their strong value proposition, but none of the Korean company's flagship premium Galaxy phones even made the list.

Counterpoint's research backs up previous data from market research firm IDC, which showed Apple overtook Samsung as the top global smartphone manufacturer in 2023, shipping more phones annually than Samsung for the first time.

Article Link: Top 7 Best-Selling Smartphones Last Year Were All iPhones

 

[I7guy]

Quite the accomplishment for apple. The 14 and 15 are great phones overall.

 

[LeeW]

Makes sense I guess, but what is the Apple vs Android split these days? So many handsets out there than just top 10.

 

[coolfactor]

Makes sense I guess, but what is the Apple vs Android split these days? So many handsets out there than just top 10.

Agreed. Seeing this as a "Global" list surprises me. Congrats to Apple, but surely there's gotta be many, many cheap Android phone sales not being counted?

 

[Qubelek]

All iPhone 15 would have much better sales if they were assembled fully by China. I saw many pictures in October/November showing issues with phones assembled in India. Scratches out of the box etc. I’m not surprised that sales of 15 is not better.

 

[gatorvet96]

Agreed. Seeing this as a "Global" list surprises me. Congrats to Apple, but surely there's gotta be many, many cheap Android phone sales not being counted?

They are all counted. The list is the top 10 phones. But that list is only 19.8% total leaving 80.2% adding up all the many many other phones on the market.

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

Amazing Apple.

 

[OrenLindsey]

The thing I can't get over is that the normal 14 is literally just the 13 but with autofocus on the selfie camera and satellite features. No other new features. And people pay extra to buy it 😭

 

[laptech]

I do not believe the companies research because it is not statically possible when it is a matter of fact that Android mobile phones have approximately 70% of the mobile phone market. This means consumers are buying way way more Android phones than Apple but yet we are expected to believe that with the merge market share that Apple has that they hold the top 7 slots of the global mobile phone market!!!, sorry, not possible because if it was possible, Apple's market share would be way way more than what it is but it isn't.

 

[Pezimak]

Not bad. Having a 14 Pro Max I recently got it's an excellent phone, 'some' of Apples iOS is buggy still on it but that's par for the course these days. But very impressive results. Although I believe global phone sales are slowing down as less people upgrade every year?

 

[jhwalker]

I do not believe the companies research because it is not statically possible when it is a matter of fact that Android mobile phones have approximately 70% of the mobile phone market. This means consumers are buying way way more Android phones than Apple but yet we are expected to believe that with the merge market share that Apple has that they hold the top 7 slots of the global mobile phone market!!!, sorry, not possible because if it was possible, Apple's market share would be way way more than what it is but it isn't.

It actually IS possible, given the intense fragmentation of the Android market.

IOW, there are literally HUNDREDS of different Android phones sold all over the world, competing with only 5-10 active iPhone models. So it's clear that, even though individual models of iPhones are at the top of the list, the hundreds of Android models will outweigh those few iPhone models when you look at TOTAL sales.

 

[haydn!]

All iPhone 15 would have much better sales if they were assembled fully by China. I saw many pictures in October/November showing issues with phones assembled in India. Scratches out of the box etc. I’m not surprised that sales of 15 is not better.

Remember this is 2023 full year sales slide. So, the iPhone 13-14 had a full 12 months of sales and the iPhone 15 just 3 months. When you take that into consideration, iPhone 15 sales are very strong in comparison to their old counterparts.

 

[I7guy]

I do not believe the companies research because it is not statically possible when it is a matter of fact that Android mobile phones have approximately 70% of the mobile phone market. This means consumers are buying way way more Android phones than Apple but yet we are expected to believe that with the merge market share that Apple has that they hold the top 7 slots of the global mobile phone market!!!, sorry, not possible because if it was possible, Apple's market share would be way way more than what it is but it isn't.

There are few providers of these types of metrics. But the numbers are based on sales and not market share.

 

[skottichan]

The thing I can't get over is that the normal 14 is literally just the 13 but with autofocus on the selfie camera and satellite features. No other new features. And people pay extra to buy it 😭

I mean, makes sense, the smartphone market has reached maturity. If you look back at the dumb phone era, you'd see the same thing happened. There were big innovations early on, mostly in micronization, to the point that 90's comedies leaned on the joke that phones were going to be super tiny in the future. Then the segment matured and you'd get the occasional gimmick, or new form factor, but the overall technology would only slightly advance year over year.

We are seeing this now with smartphones, which to be honest, is best for the consumer, there is less *need* for the latest and greatest, as the form factor and the overall tech has plateaued, and now it's stability with the occasional gimmick. So it's less about buying the new version every year, and more about only needing to buy when you have the need.

My wife and I both ungraded to 15s (the Plus for her and the Pro for me) from an 11PM and a 12PM respectively, and to be honest, there's not a huge difference aside from obvious snappiness.

tl;dr - The shine has come off smartphones outside the tech community, and that's fine. Apple, Samsung, etc, don't make their big profits from people who hang on sites like this. It's the average consumer who are happy with consistency and not a "innovation for innovation's" sake mentality.

 

[Maigrais]

That's insane. iPhone is a non-elastic product. Its demand is through the roof (thanks in part to Apple's ecosystem lock-in.) But also the device's ease of use and efficiency are brilliant. I am very curious how iPhone 16 series will compete in the market.

 

[Chuckles55]

And what is number 8, the Samsung A14, a non OLED phone with no PWM. Which shows there is still a market for LCD phones, not that anyone at Apple is paying attention.

 

[weezor]

It's crazy how the 15 Pro Max was the best-selling device of the last generation, and yet I'm still not able to use my L, M, or backspace keys reliably on this device because of this stupid touchscreen issue that Apple is refusing to acknowledge or fix.

 

[scorpio vega]

The thing I can't get over is that the normal 14 is literally just the 13 but with autofocus on the selfie camera and satellite features. No other new features. And people pay extra to buy it 😭

So if they are the same why not pay extra and get the newer model with longer support.

Also the 14 has Dynamic Island. Action mode. Photonic Engine. Extra ram. Extra gpu. Better battery life.

 

[Orange Bat]

I mean, makes sense, the smartphone market has reached maturity. If you look back at the dumb phone era, you'd see the same thing happened. There were big innovations early on, mostly in micronization, to the point that 90's comedies leaned on the joke that phones were going to be super tiny in the future. Then the segment matured and you'd get the occasional gimmick, or new form factor, but the overall technology would only slightly advance year over year.

We are seeing this now with smartphones, which to be honest, is best for the consumer, there is less *need* for the latest and greatest, as the form factor and the overall tech has plateaued, and now it's stability with the occasional gimmick. So it's less about buying the new version every year, and more about only needing to buy when you have the need.

My wife and I both ungraded to 15s (the Plus for her and the Pro for me) from an 11PM and a 12PM respectively, and to be honest, there's not a huge difference aside from obvious snappiness.

tl;dr - The shine has come off smartphones outside the tech community, and that's fine. Apple, Samsung, etc, don't make their big profits from people who hang on sites like this. It's the average consumer who are happy with consistency and not a "innovation for innovation's" sake mentality.

It feels like the market is becoming rpie for a new competitor with a real OS. The only issue is that the costs to enter the market with a brand new OS is pretty high, and there would have to be a lot of catch-up work to do just to come to parity with Apple and Google.

 

[scorpio vega]

And what is number 8, the Samsung A14, a non OLED phone with no PWM. Which shows there is still a market for LCD phones, not that anyone at Apple is paying attention.

It has nothing to do with lcd. You can literally get the a14 for free on most us carriers of less than $100.

That’s literally why android is popular. Because it’s cheap and easy access.

Shockingly the Samsung a series is not terrible despite it being lagdroid.

 

[Orange Bat]

This shouldn’t surprise anyone. If you want iOS or like Apple’s ecosystem the only option is top buy an Apple phone. If you want something else there’s a lot of options and price points in the Android space.

 

[CapitalIdea]

Finally, something Samsung cannot just copy.

 

[redmac]

Now, imagine if iPhone users needed to upgrade every year or every other year like Android users do when their devices start breaking down.

I’m sure there are far more iPhones in active use than this research suggests. iPhones sell very well, but their share among actual number of devices in use must be a lot higher thanks to their much longer service lives.

 

[OrenLindsey]

So if they are the same why not pay extra and get the newer model with longer support.

Also the 14 has Dynamic Island. Action mode. Photonic Engine. Extra ram. Extra gpu. Better battery life.

I didn't say the 14 Pro. I said the normal 14, which has none of the features you mentioned.

 

[sw1tcher]

All iPhone 15 would have much better sales if they were assembled fully by China. I saw many pictures in October/November showing issues with phones assembled in India. Scratches out of the box etc. I’m not surprised that sales of 15 is not better.

iPhone 15 series was only on sale for a little over 3 months (it went on sale on Sept. 22, 2023) last year, and they managed to capture the 5th, 6th, and 7th position on the list.

Now, compare that to the iPhone 14 series which was available for sale for up to 12 months (depending on the model and inventory remaining in the channel since the 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max were discontinue with the release of the iPhone 15 series).

Where would the iPhone 14, 14 Pro, and 14 Pro Max sit on the list vs the iPhone 15 series if they didn't have an extra 9 months of sales?