Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max and 15 Pro Max are officially the world’s best-selling smartphones،
Just in case you need another set of numbers to highlight Apple's incredible 2023 performance on the global mobile scene, Canalys is now out with its new list of the ten best-selling smartphone models around the world.
This one covers the entire last year, showing exactly how the Cupertino-based tech giant managed to beat Samsung for the first time in history in terms of sales volume (and not just profits) while still maintaining a much “leaner” product portfolio.
The magnificent seven who shook the West (and the East)
Do you know how many
iPhone models Apple is officially selling as of this writing? The answer might surprise those used to the company's old ways, as diversity and choice have become increasingly important in recent years to Apple's big bosses (and shareholders).
Between the iPhone15 and 14 families, the “vanilla” iPhone 13 and the low-cost iPhone SE (2022), there are currently eight different mobile devices that you can buy directly from an Apple Store, which explains (at least in part) the presence of no less than seven, count them, seven iPhones among the ten best performing smartphones of 2023.
Of course, the existence of these products doesn't automatically guarantee their popularity, with the iPhone 15 Plus, for example, appearing nowhere on the aforementioned top ten list. Interestingly, this list includes the technically discontinued iPhone 14
Pro, but it's also missing the third-generation iPhone SE.
But the most interesting part of the top ten is the names of the two devices at its peak, both of which end in “Pro Max.” We're talking about the iPhone 14 Pro Max releasing in 2022 and a blockbuster iPhone 15 Pro Max that only needed a little over three months of commercial availability to reach 33 million units shipped.
This is apparently a first which reflects “the premium shift in the market”, since the best-selling smartphone in 2022 was the “normal”.
iPhone13 and the non-Pro iPhone 14 had dominated the hierarchy from January to September 2023 (at least
according to Counterpoint Research). This time around, holiday shoppers clearly went completely crazy for Apple's biggest, boldest iPhones, blowing those profits through the roof.
While the iPhone14 managed to edge out its Pro sibling for a place on the overall podium, the iPhone 15 Pro beat the “base” iPhone 15 quite comfortably, suggesting that next year's top three could go all the way to end.
Where is the Galaxy S23 series?
It is obvious that Samsung has two major challenges to overcome in 2024 if it wants to regain a dominant position in the global smartphone market. The first is that its low- and mid-range devices, while very popular in their own right, can no longer compete with Apple's more advanced iPhones in terms of sales volume.
Remember when the entry-level Galaxy A10 was
the third best-selling smartphone in the world, followed closely by the A50 and the A20? The best Samsung's Galaxy A-series handsets can do now is take sixth place on the list above for 2023, with the A54 5G and A14 5G barely able to hold off the competition.
iPhone15 while ranking behind the 15 Pro in ninth and tenth positions respectively.
The Galaxy A54 was Samsung's second best-selling smartphone in 2023, obviously beating the S23, S23 Plus and S23 Ultra.
The second, perhaps more serious, problem is that all three members of the ultra-premium segment Galaxy S23 The family proved less popular than the decidedly modest (and affordable) A14 4G, A54 5G, and A14 5G, not to mention the cutting-edge iPhones they were intended to serve.
Compared to
iPhone15 series, these Android heavyweights had another seven months on the market, but at the end of the
day year, it made no difference in favor of Samsung. This is clearly an extremely poor result for the former world leader in the mobile industry, and the
Galaxy S24 the range will have to greatly improve on the sales figures of its predecessor to post the (realistic) top ten aspirations this year.
