Just when we were done wrapping our heads around the mind-boggling sales numbers announced at Apple’s quarterly earnings call, we have learnt of another major achievement by Tim Cook & team – iPhone has outsold Samsung phones to become world’s biggest selling smartphone of the last quarter!
Apple sold a record-breaking 78.3 million iPhones between October and December 2016, while Samsung ended the quarter with a sales total of 77.5 million. This means that iPhone alone sold 8,00,000 more units than all Samsung smartphones put together. Now, that’s impressive!
We cannot overlook the fact that a major reason for Apple clinching the first place is the Galaxy Note 7 debacle that cost Samsung dearly. During Apple’s quarterly earnings call, Tim Cook categorically pointed the growing rate of Android to iPhone switchers. It would be safe to assume that many of these new iPhone 7 buyers were potential (or existing) Note 7 customers.
In terms of percentages, the difference between Apple and Samsung is as tight as it gets – o.1%. Table topper Apple made 17.8% of total sales, and Samsung fell just short with 17.7% share. Other members of the Top 5 sellers list were Huawei (10.2%), OPPO (6.7%) and Vivo (5.8%).
The unexpected growth in iPhone sales is a great news for Apple, especially considering that most people had written off last year’s iPhone 7 as ‘me too’ of the previous generation models. Imagine what would happen if this year’s iPhone 8 is half as good as the rumours we have been hearing. 100 million iPhones in a quarter? Just might!
