Apple's iPhone 5s remains 'by far the top selling smartphone'

Posted:
in AAPL Investors edited January 2014
Apple continues to dominate smartphone sales with their flagship iPhone 5s and mid-range iPhone 5c as the handsets took two of the top three sales slots at every major U.S. wireless carrier for the third month in a row.

Q4 Smartphone Sales
Source: Canaccord Genuity


The Cupertino, Calif.-based company remained America's top smartphone vendor in November on the back of 'strong' iPhone 5s sales and 'steady' iPhone 5c sales, according to data cited by Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley in a Thursday note to investors. Samsung notched a second-place finish in an industry that has seen major sales consolidation throughout the fourth quarter.

Before the iPhone 5s and 5c's release, Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, Sony, and Motorola all had handsets enjoying top-three sales at at least one of America's big four carriers. Apple's September announcement pushed all but Samsung out of the picture and relegated the South Korean conglomerate's Galaxy S4 to the runner-up position across the board.

Apple has maintained a significant edge outside of the U.S. as well, even before the long-anticipated launch of the company's devices on China Mobile, the world's largest wireless carrier. The iPhone 5s was "by far the top selling smartphone...at most channels where the smartphone launched globally," Walkley notes.

The sales data also points to a strong showing for Apple's iPad in November. Canaccord's surveys "indicated strong Black Friday weekend iPad Air and new iPad mini sales...essentially at all channels where the iPads were available," a finding corroborated by previous analytics data that showed a boost of more than 50 percent for the new 9.7-inch tablet.

Walkley raised the bank's price target on Apple shares from $580 to $600 and revised shipment estimates for the iPhone upward to 54 million units in the first quarter of the company's 2014 fiscal year and 186 million units for the entire year.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 87
    I'm a little surprised to see the 5C making it to the number spot at all — even though I do see the 5C often — since it's not something I'd expect people to run out to get like with both the flagship devices from Apple and Samsung. In any case the iPhone 5C does not look like a failure.

    Clearly I can't prove this but I bet if you broke down the unit sales by capacity the iPhone 5S would take all 4 top spots, but good on Samsung because number two is still number two (, or rather number one Android phone).
  • Reply 2 of 87
    Finally bit the smartphone bullet and bought 4, count 'em, 4 iPhones this year for the fan. Okay, it's a survey of sample size 1, but I wonder how many other people have been brought past the inflection point by the 5s. (And T-Mo. Not an employee but an admitted fan, given their recent disruptive moves.)
  • Reply 3 of 87
    BTW, if your credit is good enough to qualify you at AT&T and Verizon, it'll be good enough to qualify you for an installment plan with T-Mo. Which means the device costs you put down for T-Mo are not comparable to the numbers you put down for the other carriers.
  • Reply 4 of 87

    Remembering two things:

     

    1. This is US only.

     

    2. We don't know the numbers. 5s to S4 could be 2 to 1 for all we know... or it could be 1.1 to 1. Same for the 5c. It would be nice to see some actual numbers.

  • Reply 5 of 87
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post

    …good on Samsung because number two is still number two

     

    I’ve always felt that Samsung was number two.

  • Reply 6 of 87
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

     

    I’ve always felt that Samsung was number two.


     

    That had a much different meaning to me when I was three years old.

  • Reply 7 of 87
    piotpiot Posts: 1,346member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post

     

    1. This is US only.

     


     

    " as the handsets took two of the top three sales slots at every major U.S. wireless carrier for the third month in a row"

     

    Yep. That was a really subtle clue.

  • Reply 8 of 87
    Remembering two things:

    1. This is US only.

    2. We don't know the numbers. 5s to S4 could be 2 to 1 for all we know... or it could be 1.1 to 1. Same for the 5c. It would be nice to see some actual numbers.

    Just make up some numbers. Samsung S4: extrapolate to 40 million! Winner!
  • Reply 9 of 87
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by piot View Post

     

     

    " as the handsets took two of the top three sales slots at every major U.S. wireless carrier for the third month in a row"

     

    Yep. That was a really subtle clue.


     

    it said the same thing the last time the Canaccord numbers were up and the numbers were treated by a few as if they were worldwide. Just thought I'd see if that type of nonsense could be avoided this time.

  • Reply 10 of 87
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Where's the Moto X? You'd think with all the free advertising it's getting on tech sites it would be in the top three.
  • Reply 11 of 87
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member

    There seems no doubt the iPhone rules the US market in a big way.  AI has had many, many article reiterating this fact.

     

    One should not extrapolate from this success to the rest of the world, however:

     

    http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/12/02/report-new-iphones-boost-apples-market-share-except-in-europe-where-windows-phone-gains-ground/#!pK09K

  • Reply 12 of 87
    Why do Americans buy an Asia phone?
  • Reply 13 of 87
    Originally Posted by cnocbui View Post

    One should not extrapolate from this success to the rest of the world, however:


     

    So the rest of the planet has no taste and supports thieves. Big deal.

  • Reply 14 of 87
    I don't get it. iPhone sales seem to be rising and the news media makes it seem like by quite a bit and yet Apple's share price barely moves while Amazon, Google and Netflix are going up daily and there's less enthusiastic talk about any of them. What's the problem with Apple, anyway, considering buybacks and dividends. I guess it's the old Tim Cook curse holding down Apple's share price. If this is going to be an iPad Christmas one would figure that would also help boost Apple's share price. If Apple is selling far more iPhone 5s models than the cheaper 5c model, I'd think that would be a huge plus in Apple's favor, but it doesn't appear to be helping at all.
  • Reply 15 of 87
    Why do Americans buy an Asia phone?

    You could then also ask: Why do Asians buy an America phone?

    The truth is marketing works and the S4 is one of the best Android-based smartphones on the market.
  • Reply 16 of 87
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cnocbui View Post

     

    There seems no doubt the iPhone rules the US market in a big way.  AI has had many, many article reiterating this fact.

     

    One should not extrapolate from this success to the rest of the world, however:

     




     


    Once again the article is talking hardware sales and your troll is about operating systems. Just shut up, okay. Apple is doing well in the rest of the world too, no matter how you want to spin it.
  • Reply 17 of 87
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    I don't get it. iPhone sales seem to be rising and the news media makes it seem like by quite a bit and yet Apple's share price barely moves while Amazon, Google and Netflix are going up daily and there's less enthusiastic talk about any of them. What's the problem with Apple, anyway, considering buybacks and dividends. I guess it's the old Tim Cook curse holding down Apple's share price. If this is going to be an iPad Christmas one would figure that would also help boost Apple's share price. If Apple is selling far more iPhone 5s models than the cheaper 5c model, I'd think that would be a huge plus in Apple's favor, but it doesn't appear to be helping at all.
    Geez just sell your Apple stock and be done with the company already. And if you have sold your stock then why do you care?
  • Reply 18 of 87
    It's a shame to see these numbers so high. I was hoping the 5S would have mediocre sales so Apple would have more incentive to finally release a 5" phone! I would love to be using an iPhone right now, but I refuse to use something with screen technology stuck in 2011. It's why I went with a Nexus 5 after owning a 3G, 4, and 4S....
  • Reply 19 of 87

     

    Hi! I'm Randall from AT&T. We have a new option for our customers, the "ScrewU Plan". It works like this:

     

    You pay full price for a locked phone.

     

    We still charge you the same monthly fee as when your phone was subsidized, and force you to commit to a two year contract.

     

    You can roll over your minutes but not your data.

     

    If you pay for unlimited data, 'unlimited' = two Netflix movies and eight YouTube cat videos. Above that, we slow you to AOL dialup speed.

     

    We'll sell you a mini-cell tower that connects to and uses the internet you pay for separately, for an additional monthly fee, so you can get phone service where we don't have any.

     

    If you ever want a new phone, you pay full price again for a locked phone, then we'll think about unlocking the old one...

  • Reply 20 of 87
    .
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