Despite Android’s ultra dominance of the smartphone market, with over 80% market share versus 14.6% for
Apple’s iPhone 6s is currently the world’s most popular smartphone
Ahead of Apple’s unveiling of the iPhone 7 in San Francisco, now a few short hours away, market research firm Strategy Analytics reports that the iPhone 6s is the most popular smartphone in the world, followed by the the two-year-old iPhone 6 and
“We estimate the Apple iPhone 6s model shipped 14.2 million units and accounted for 4 percent share of all smartphones shipped worldwide in Q2 2016,” said Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics. “Apple’s iPhone 6s is currently the world’s most popular smartphone.”
And this is despite the fact that Apple lost market share last quarterto its closest competitors including Samsung, Huawei and Oppo, when its iPhone sales fell to 40.4 million units from 47.5 million a year earlier.
| Global Smartphone Shipments by Model (Millions of Units) | Q2 '15 | Q2 '16 |
| Apple iPhone 6s | 0.0 | 14.2 |
| Apple iPhone 6 | 26.3 | 8.5 |
| Samsung Galaxy S7 edge | 0.0 | 8.3 |
| Others | 311.7 | 310.5 |
|
|
338.0 | 341.5 |
| Global Smartphone Marketshare by Model (% of Total) | Q2 '15 | Q2 '16 |
| Apple iPhone 6s | 0.0% | 4.2% |
| Apple iPhone 6 | 7.8% | 2.5% |
| Samsung Galaxy S7 edge | 0.0% | 2.4% |
| Others | 92.2% | 90.9% |
| Total | 100.0% | 100.0% |
| Source: Strategy Analytics |
What seems like a conundrum at first can easily be explained though: Apple essentially plays only in the high-end segment of the smartphone market ($400 and up), while most of its Android rivals cover the entire spectrum, from low-cost sub-$100 devices to the high-end smartphones, beating Apple in volume but not in dollar sales or profits.
It’s also interesting to see that despite an overall economic slowdown accompanied by a slowing demand as consumers take longer to upgrade their older devices, Apple is still able to outsell its cheaper competitors with a higher price smartphone.
"The iPhone 6s is wildly popular in dozens of countries globally, due to its attractive hardware design blended with rich features such as 4K video, large multi-touch display, and fingerprint security,” added Mawston.
A sign that a good product will always sell well. Now, let's see how the iPhone 7 fares with what's already on the market. Just a few more hours to wait!
