Apple's iPhone Hailed as the Best-Selling Smartphone in the World, Beating Samsung's Record

Sophie Webster, Tech Times 18 January 2022, 01:01 pm

(Photo : Unsplash/Jeremy Bezanger) iPhone 13

Apple's iPhone is the best-selling smartphone in the world, according to the Q4 2021 numbers. Despite the coronavirus pandemic and the supply chain shortages affecting the manufacturers, it surpassed Samsung in sales.

Apple's iPhone is the Best-Selling Smartphone

According to Apple Insider, 22% of all smartphones sold around the world were iPhone, and Apple has finally overtaken the 20% share of Samsung. Apple is now labeled as the most popular vendor in the world.

Research firm Canalys reported that the demand for iPhones in 2021 shot Apple straight to the top after months of being behind Samsung.

Canalys's Sanyam Chaurasia said in a statement that Apple is now back at the top of the market after being the second place for three quarters in 2021.

The change was driven by the incredible performance of the iPhone 13. Apple saw a huge sales increase in China, with aggressive pricing for its devices, keeping its value proposition strong.

Also Read: Apple's iPhone 13 Reportedly to Debut with 1TB of Storage, Coming this September 15 Fall Event

Chaurasia added that Apple could not meet the demand due to the shortages of the components. In the main markets, Apple maintained its delivery times, but in smaller markets, the customers had to wait for months to get their hands on the latest smartphone.

According to Nicole Peng, the vice president of Mobility at Canalys, the firm predicts that the chip capacity will take a long time to increase.

Peng said that smartphone brands are innovating to help with the situation, with some even tweaking the specs to cater to the materials on hand.

The brands are also partnering up with new chipmakers to secure materials, and they are focusing on adding product lines to their best-selling devices and launching new products.

Peng continued that the practices had an advantage to massive brands, as they are set for now because bottlenecks will not ease until late 2022.

While Apple saw an impressive increase in sales for Q4 2021, the same can't be said for their figures in 2020.

For Q4 2021, Apple and Samsung took the first and second place respectively, with 23% and 17% in sales, while Xiaomi took the third spot with 12%, OPPO came in on fourth place with 9%, and Vivo is the last on the list, with 8%.

Apple does not release the exact sales figures for their iPhones. However, a report from Counterpoint Research showed that iPhone 13 is the best-selling smartphone in China.

Millions of iPhone 13 Sold

According to MacRumors, Apple sold more than 40 million iPhone 13 smartphones over the holiday period. Before the holidays, reports were claiming that the demand for iPhone 13 was slowing due to the long wait time, but it immediately increased when the delivery estimates improved.

Now, the demand for iPhone 13 remained strong in the first few days of 2022, with the demand for the smartphone surpassing the supply by millions of units. This is a good sign for Apple because their supply chain problem is also slowly getting better as of this month.

Out of the 975 million iPhone users in the world, around 230 million have not upgraded to the latest model yet. Because of this, it is believed that the sales of the iPhone 13 will continue to improve this year.