Apple’s ‘vanilla’ iPhone 14 remains the world’s best-selling smartphone, but where is the iPhone 15?،
For the umpteenth time in just the last few years, Samsung managed to eclipse Apple in terms of quarterly smartphone shipments between July and September 2023, dominating the global market as a whole despite a slight decline in its share of the overall pie compared to 22% in the third quarter. 2022 at 20 percent right now.
It is at least according to Canalys, even though reports produced by other research firms for the same period appear more or less identical. But as usual, the hierarchy changes radically when we analyze the different models of the best-selling phones in the world rather than the total volumes of manufacturers like Apple and Samsung.
An iPhone 14 trio for all ages
As impressive as it is to see Apple take the top spot here with the base iPhone 14 for the second quarter in a row, it's clearly about 100 times more impressive that the tech giant behind the world's best-selling smartphone is also ranked second and third with two other members of the same family, as well as fourth with the “elders” iPhone13.
The 6.1-inch non-Pro iPhone 13, of course, topped the chart in Q1 2022, Q2 2022, and Q3 2022 before falling straight to fourth place late last year and have remained in this position ever since. It means that iPhone14Google's reign could also end in the very near future, although it remains to be seen whether the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro Max will have what it takes to dominate the world this holiday quarter.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max, mind you, managed to get ahead of the iPhone14 for the Q4 2022 crown after placing in the top ten between July and September last year. Somewhat surprisingly, the iPhone1515 Pro and 15 Pro Max are nowhere to be found in the Q3 2023 hierarchy, seemingly confirming reports from China of low initial demand compared to their predecessors.
Naturally, the iPhone15 the list might also suffer from a bad case of…stable iPhone14 popularity of the series, but regardless, Apple certainly has reason to worry even if it copiously dominates another list of the ten best-selling smartphone models.
How bad is the Galaxy S23 family doing?
In short, pretty bad. So bad that the S23 Ultra entered this list at number six in the first quarter of 2023, which was a mediocre launch result, before dropping to number eight in the second quarter and dropping out of the top ten prematurely. The “vanilla” S23 and S23+ never even made the rankings, leaving Samsung with… plenty of top ten placers, but none with high-end specs and truly significant profit margins.
This is obviously not good for the financial situation of the chaebol's mobile division, especially since the low-end Galaxy A14 and A14 5G proved more popular than the Galaxy A54 in Q3 2023 and the Redmi 13C ultra-low-cost from Xiaomi has taken over. Galaxy S23 Ultraranks among the ten most popular handsets.
The Redmi 13C also marks a return to form (in a way) for its manufacturer, which until recently constantly had a low to mid-range model ranked in the top ten worldwide. It remains to be seen now whether Xiaomi can make two in the near future or whether Samsung can perhaps crack the top ten with something like the high-end(ish) Galaxy S23 FE before releasing the super Galaxy S24 trio premium in the first quarter of 2024. .
