iPhone or Samsung? Most purchased phone in first half of 2017 revealed

A report from top analysts has revealed which smartphone racked up the most sales in the first half of the year.

It turns out that Apple’s 2016 flagship smartphone was the most popular smartphone in early 2017, at least according to a new report. Analysis by IHS Markit reveals that the iPhone 7 “outsold all other smartphone models globally” during the first six months of this year.

Unsurprisingly, the second spot went to the slightly larger iPhone 7 Plus, which launched at the same time as the iPhone 7 – September 2016.

So where’s Samsung? Well, IHS Markit reports that the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Plus bagged position three, followed by the iPhone 6S in fourth.

We don’t actually get to Samsung’s 2017 flagship – the Samsung Galaxy S8 – until slot five, with the Galaxy S8+ coming in at sixth, although it was a close race, with the latter selling in “slightly less volume”.

It’s not a huge surprise that Samsung struggled to top Apple in the first half of the year, mind; Samsung’s flagships were launched much later than Apple’s. In a statement, IHS Markit’s Associate Director for Mobile Devices Jusy Hong explained Samsung’s lower sales:

“This is likely because Samsung began selling the Galaxy S8 and S8+ models in April, a month later than last year’s launch of the S7 series. The shipment ranking of the Galaxy S8+ fell to umber six, compared to the fourth-place Galaxy S7 Edge in 2016.”

Still, both Samsung and Apple are massively dominating the global phone market, so neither has cause for concern. Of the top 10 phones sold, five were made by Samsung, four were made by Apple, and one was from China’s Oppo. Interestingly, eight of the top 22 shipping models so far this year were Chinese, with six million sales in the first half of 2017.

“The number of smartphone models with more than a million shipments per month increased in the first half of this year to 22 from 17 in 2016,” reads the report. Hong explains:

“This is a direct result of smartphone OEM efforts to select and concentrate in order to improve product portfolios and increase profitability. In addition, more Chinese OEMs are selling their smartphone models outside of China, which intensifies competition and generates more globally popular models.”

Related: Samsung Galaxy S9

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