Apple's iPhone 7 was world's best-selling smartphone in first quarter of 2017

Posted:
in iPhone edited December 2019
In a new report, Apple's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus claimed the number one and two most sold smartphones, during the first calendar quarter of 2017.




Data collected by Strategy Analytics notes that global smartphone shipments reached 353.3 million units in the first quarter of 2017. Of that 353.3 million, 21.5 million were the iPhone 7, with 17.4 million the iPhone 7 Plus.

Given those figures, the iPhone 7 claimed 6.1 percent of global smartphone sales, with the iPhone 7 Plus taking 4.9 percent. Rounding out the top 5 are the Oppo R9s at 2.5 percent, and the midrange 2016 Samsung Galaxy J3 and J5 taking 1.7 and 1.4 percent respectively.

The Oppo R9s retails for around $425. The Galaxy J5 sells for $180 with the J3 retailing for $150.

On April 26, Apple announced its second fiscal quarter results. During the quarter, the company sold 50.8 million iPhones, but as usual did not break down by model.

Apple CEO Tim Cook called the declining second quarter iPhone sales year-over-year partly because of more frequent, and earlier leaks of details for future products. The "iPhone 8" rumor mill started in December of 2015, shortly after the release of the iPhone 6s.
edred

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,389member
    Nice to know, after the endless, bullshit "weak iPhone 7 sales" headlines and narratives. Apple, while being "decimated" by Android, and having a "pathetic" and "minor" iPhone update, still has the #1 and #2 phones on the planet. 
    edredlkruppmacxpressmagman1979r00fus1StrangeDayscaliwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 15
    pepe779pepe779 Posts: 84member
    This report is heavily biased though. All it does is it takes advantage of the sheer amount of combinations of android phone makers and all of their individual phone models. This way the iPhone will ALWAYS win easily. Yes, it's not Apple's fault that the android world is so fragmented, but at the same time this is not really a fair method of comparing these two worlds, because Apple and most of the other brands clearly have a different product strategy. Compare the the entire Apple iPhone line with the entire Samsung Galaxy line for example, which is a more accurate comparison in my opinion, and you will get completely different numbers (in millions of units):

    Samsung Q1 '17: 80.2
    Apple Q1 '17: 50.8

    Let's also not forget these are SHIPMENTS only, not sales, so the title of this article is clearly wrong and misleading.
    singularity
  • Reply 3 of 15
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    pepe779 said:
    This report is heavily biased though. All it does is it takes advantage of the sheer amount of combinations of android phone makers and all of their individual phone models. This way the iPhone will ALWAYS win easily. Yes, it's not Apple's fault that the android world is so fragmented, but at the same time this is not really a fair method of comparing these two worlds, because Apple and most of the other brands clearly have a different product strategy. Compare the the entire Apple iPhone line with the entire Samsung Galaxy line for example, which is a more accurate comparison in my opinion, and you will get completely different numbers (in millions of units):

    Samsung Q1 '17: 80.2
    Apple Q1 '17: 50.8

    Let's also not forget these are SHIPMENTS only, not sales, so the title of this article is clearly wrong and misleading.
    On the contrary, this is the better method than grouping all phones under the iOS and Android lines.  Or under individual companies to show Samsung has higher market share than Apple.  It make people mistakenly think Samsung Galaxy S7 sells better than iPhone 7.  This report is clearer.  It clearly shows that Samsung grabbed higher market share by selling much cheaper model instead of S7. The other methods won't reveal this truth. 
    wonkothesaner00fus12old4funMikeymikecaliwatto_cobra[Deleted User]
  • Reply 4 of 15
    pepe779 said:
    This report is heavily biased though. All it does is it takes advantage of the sheer amount of combinations of android phone makers and all of their individual phone models. This way the iPhone will ALWAYS win easily. Yes, it's not Apple's fault that the android world is so fragmented, but at the same time this is not really a fair method of comparing these two worlds, because Apple and most of the other brands clearly have a different product strategy. Compare the the entire Apple iPhone line with the entire Samsung Galaxy line for example, which is a more accurate comparison in my opinion, and you will get completely different numbers (in millions of units):

    Samsung Q1 '17: 80.2
    Apple Q1 '17: 50.8

    Let's also not forget these are SHIPMENTS only, not sales, so the title of this article is clearly wrong and misleading.
    Sales and Shipped for these purposes are the same. The manufacturers are not shipping phones out without being sold. When BestBuy, Verizon etc.....get phones they are Apple/Samsung's customers.
  • Reply 5 of 15
    tzeshan said:
    pepe779 said:
    This report is heavily biased though. All it does is it takes advantage of the sheer amount of combinations of android phone makers and all of their individual phone models. This way the iPhone will ALWAYS win easily. Yes, it's not Apple's fault that the android world is so fragmented, but at the same time this is not really a fair method of comparing these two worlds, because Apple and most of the other brands clearly have a different product strategy. Compare the the entire Apple iPhone line with the entire Samsung Galaxy line for example, which is a more accurate comparison in my opinion, and you will get completely different numbers (in millions of units):

    Samsung Q1 '17: 80.2
    Apple Q1 '17: 50.8

    Let's also not forget these are SHIPMENTS only, not sales, so the title of this article is clearly wrong and misleading.
    On the contrary, this is the better method than grouping all phones under the iOS and Android lines.  Or under individual companies to show Samsung has higher market share than Apple.  It make people mistakenly think Samsung Galaxy S7 sells better than iPhone 7.  This report is clearer.  It clearly shows that Samsung grabbed higher market share by selling much cheaper model instead of S7. The other methods won't reveal this truth. 
    I don't even see the purpose of these reports. Who do they serve? Certainly not the consumer. It doesn't serve individual companies because they already know how much they ship or sell and whether they're making any profits or not. Does a report like this help investors in any way? All they would have to do is wait for quarterly earnings to find out if a particular company was doing well or not. Are these reports only good for offering misinformation or numbers without any clear context? I really don't understand what type of value these reports offer. Who can possibly use a report like this and for what reason? Knowing how many units a company ships per quarter, doesn't actually tell anything useful about a particular company. So what if a company ships a lot of units? It might be good if all those shipped units are sold but if all those units being sold are losing money for the company then the report wouldn't be all that meaningful in terms of useful information to get a clear picture of that particular company.

    Each time I read some article about how more Android devices are shipped than iOS devices, it really doesn't offer much in terms of context, so how is it useful to anyone. Do people really put out these articles or reports to mislead people? Is this some phenomenon that equates to the theory that more is always better or big numbers are always better than smaller numbers? I just don't get it.  It's probably fairly obvious Samsung ships an awful lot of smartphones at various price levels, but it should matter that the company is making or losing money on its entire line of smartphones.  Companies need to be profitable to survive.
    edited May 2017 muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 6 of 15
    I don't even see the purpose of these reports. Who do they serve? Certainly not the consumer. It doesn't serve individual companies because they already know how much they ship or sell and whether they're making any profits or not. Does a report like this help investors in any way? All they would have to do is wait for quarterly earnings to find out if a particular company was doing well or not. Are these reports only good for offering misinformation or numbers without any clear context? I really don't understand what type of value these reports offer. Who can possibly use a report like this and for what reason? Knowing how many units a company ships per quarter, doesn't actually tell anything useful about a particular company. So what if a company ships a lot of units? It might be good if all those shipped units are sold but if all those units being sold are losing money for the company then the report wouldn't be all that meaningful in terms of useful information to get a clear picture of that particular company.

    Each time I read some article about how more Android devices are shipped than iOS devices, it really doesn't offer much in terms of context, so how is it useful to anyone. Do people really put out these articles or reports to mislead people? Is this some phenomenon that equates to the theory that more is always better or big numbers are always better than smaller numbers? I just don't get it.  It's probably fairly obvious Samsung ships an awful lot of smartphones at various price levels, but it should matter that the company is making or losing money on its entire line of smartphones.  Companies need to be profitable to survive.
    Okay so you're talking about profitability and why it's about making and losing money. Seriously? Then everything you said is immaterial because when it's about this stuff no single one on the planet bears Apple. 
  • Reply 7 of 15
    r00fus1r00fus1 Posts: 65member
    tzeshan said:
    pepe779 said:
    This report is heavily biased though. All it does is it takes advantage of the sheer amount of combinations of android phone makers and all of their individual phone models. This way the iPhone will ALWAYS win easily. Yes, it's not Apple's fault that the android world is so fragmented, but at the same time this is not really a fair method of comparing these two worlds, because Apple and most of the other brands clearly have a different product strategy. Compare the the entire Apple iPhone line with the entire Samsung Galaxy line for example, which is a more accurate comparison in my opinion, and you will get completely different numbers (in millions of units):

    Samsung Q1 '17: 80.2
    Apple Q1 '17: 50.8

    Let's also not forget these are SHIPMENTS only, not sales, so the title of this article is clearly wrong and misleading.
    On the contrary, this is the better method than grouping all phones under the iOS and Android lines.  Or under individual companies to show Samsung has higher market share than Apple.  It make people mistakenly think Samsung Galaxy S7 sells better than iPhone 7.  This report is clearer.  It clearly shows that Samsung grabbed higher market share by selling much cheaper model instead of S7. The other methods won't reveal this truth. 
    I don't even see the purpose of these reports. Who do they serve? Certainly not the consumer. It doesn't serve individual companies because they already know how much they ship or sell and whether they're making any profits or not. Does a report like this help investors in any way? All they would have to do is wait for quarterly earnings to find out if a particular company was doing well or not. Are these reports only good for offering misinformation or numbers without any clear context? I really don't understand what type of value these reports offer. Who can possibly use a report like this and for what reason? Knowing how many units a company ships per quarter, doesn't actually tell anything useful about a particular company. So what if a company ships a lot of units? It might be good if all those shipped units are sold but if all those units being sold are losing money for the company then the report wouldn't be all that meaningful in terms of useful information to get a clear picture of that particular company.

    Each time I read some article about how more Android devices are shipped than iOS devices, it really doesn't offer much in terms of context, so how is it useful to anyone. Do people really put out these articles or reports to mislead people? Is this some phenomenon that equates to the theory that more is always better or big numbers are always better than smaller numbers? I just don't get it.  It's probably fairly obvious Samsung ships an awful lot of smartphones at various price levels, but it should matter that the company is making or losing money on its entire line of smartphones.  Companies need to be profitable to survive.
    There are lots of "customers who are also retail investors" of Apple. I hold stock, buy options and own many Apple products. Also it helps to rationalize the fact that we all know Apple is the most profitable company in the history of the world against the news that it's highest profile product pales in marketshare to it's competitors (in aggregate). My favorite measure is units * ASP.
  • Reply 8 of 15
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    tzeshan said:
    pepe779 said:
    This report is heavily biased though. All it does is it takes advantage of the sheer amount of combinations of android phone makers and all of their individual phone models. This way the iPhone will ALWAYS win easily. Yes, it's not Apple's fault that the android world is so fragmented, but at the same time this is not really a fair method of comparing these two worlds, because Apple and most of the other brands clearly have a different product strategy. Compare the the entire Apple iPhone line with the entire Samsung Galaxy line for example, which is a more accurate comparison in my opinion, and you will get completely different numbers (in millions of units):

    Samsung Q1 '17: 80.2
    Apple Q1 '17: 50.8

    Let's also not forget these are SHIPMENTS only, not sales, so the title of this article is clearly wrong and misleading.
    On the contrary, this is the better method than grouping all phones under the iOS and Android lines.  Or under individual companies to show Samsung has higher market share than Apple.  It make people mistakenly think Samsung Galaxy S7 sells better than iPhone 7.  This report is clearer.  It clearly shows that Samsung grabbed higher market share by selling much cheaper model instead of S7. The other methods won't reveal this truth. 
    I don't even see the purpose of these reports. Who do they serve? Certainly not the consumer. It doesn't serve individual companies because they already know how much they ship or sell and whether they're making any profits or not. Does a report like this help investors in any way? All they would have to do is wait for quarterly earnings to find out if a particular company was doing well or not. Are these reports only good for offering misinformation or numbers without any clear context? I really don't understand what type of value these reports offer. Who can possibly use a report like this and for what reason? Knowing how many units a company ships per quarter, doesn't actually tell anything useful about a particular company. So what if a company ships a lot of units? It might be good if all those shipped units are sold but if all those units being sold are losing money for the company then the report wouldn't be all that meaningful in terms of useful information to get a clear picture of that particular company.

    Each time I read some article about how more Android devices are shipped than iOS devices, it really doesn't offer much in terms of context, so how is it useful to anyone. Do people really put out these articles or reports to mislead people? Is this some phenomenon that equates to the theory that more is always better or big numbers are always better than smaller numbers? I just don't get it.  It's probably fairly obvious Samsung ships an awful lot of smartphones at various price levels, but it should matter that the company is making or losing money on its entire line of smartphones.  Companies need to be profitable to survive.
    I would think this report will hinder many Samsung-paid reviews from praising Galaxy S8 as better than Apple iPhone 7.  
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 15
    ph382ph382 Posts: 43member
    gmgravytrain said:

    I don't even see the purpose of these reports. Who do they serve? Certainly not the consumer. 
    I think they are useful to developers.  Should I write code to take advantage of the different camera on the 7 plus, or not?  Are there enough purchasers that spent big bucks on a phone, and are likely to buy higher-priced apps?  Big numbers indicate a big marketplace for apps.

    [Deleted User]
  • Reply 10 of 15
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 13,089member
    pepe779 said:
    This report is heavily biased though. All it does is it takes advantage of the sheer amount of combinations of android phone makers and all of their individual phone models. This way the iPhone will ALWAYS win easily. Yes, it's not Apple's fault that the android world is so fragmented, but at the same time this is not really a fair method of comparing these two worlds, because Apple and most of the other brands clearly have a different product strategy. Compare the the entire Apple iPhone line with the entire Samsung Galaxy line for example, which is a more accurate comparison in my opinion, and you will get completely different numbers (in millions of units):

    Samsung Q1 '17: 80.2
    Apple Q1 '17: 50.8

    Let's also not forget these are SHIPMENTS only, not sales, so the title of this article is clearly wrong and misleading.
    This is nonsense. It's not Apple's problem that all the android makers sell lots of different models to see what sticks to the wall. When one talks about the top selling auto, it's the single top selling auto -- no ifs, ands, ors, or buts. Same thing. 

    And please, with Apple and iphones, shipments are sales. They don't sit around in warehouses like the other crap.
    Mikeymikecaliwatto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 15
    smalmsmalm Posts: 677member
    Interesting!
    The Galaxy S - for years # 2 in the market - slipped at least to # 6 shipping under 5 m.
    Oppo sold at least 8.8 m smartphones > $400. That's a third of all their shipments. BKK must be pleased...

    BTW:
    Apple's numbers for iPhone are allways shipments.
    If you want to know how many iPhones were really sold you have to listen to the financial report telco where Cook/Maestri add information about channel inventory.
    Apple Q1/17: 50.8 m shipped, 1.2 m drop in channel inventory, 52.0 m sold.
    edited May 2017 watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 15
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    pepe779 said:
    This report is heavily biased though. All it does is it takes advantage of the sheer amount of combinations of android phone makers and all of their individual phone models. This way the iPhone will ALWAYS win easily. Yes, it's not Apple's fault that the android world is so fragmented, but at the same time this is not really a fair method of comparing these two worlds, because Apple and most of the other brands clearly have a different product strategy. Compare the the entire Apple iPhone line with the entire Samsung Galaxy line for example, which is a more accurate comparison in my opinion, and you will get completely different numbers (in millions of units):

    Samsung Q1 '17: 80.2
    Apple Q1 '17: 50.8

    Let's also not forget these are SHIPMENTS only, not sales, so the title of this article is clearly wrong and misleading.
    This is the crap android users want. They pair all 1,300+ iKnockoffs against 5 iPhones and say Apple is failing.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 15
    kevin keekevin kee Posts: 1,289member
    pepe779 said:
    This report is heavily biased though. All it does is it takes advantage of the sheer amount of combinations of android phone makers and all of their individual phone models. This way the iPhone will ALWAYS win easily. Yes, it's not Apple's fault that the android world is so fragmented, but at the same time this is not really a fair method of comparing these two worlds, because Apple and most of the other brands clearly have a different product strategy. Compare the the entire Apple iPhone line with the entire Samsung Galaxy line for example, which is a more accurate comparison in my opinion, and you will get completely different numbers (in millions of units):

    Samsung Q1 '17: 80.2
    Apple Q1 '17: 50.8

    Let's also not forget these are SHIPMENTS only, not sales, so the title of this article is clearly wrong and misleading.
    Nope, this is even way more bias. Comparing the strength of individual smartphones is fair and way to go, comparing the total sales of individual company is not only unfair but extremely inaccurate.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 15
    iushnt1iushnt1 Posts: 12member
    pepe779 said:
    This report is heavily biased though. All it does is it takes advantage of the sheer amount of combinations of android phone makers and all of their individual phone models. This way the iPhone will ALWAYS win easily. Yes, it's not Apple's fault that the android world is so fragmented, but at the same time this is not really a fair method of comparing these two worlds, because Apple and most of the other brands clearly have a different product strategy. Compare the the entire Apple iPhone line with the entire Samsung Galaxy line for example, which is a more accurate comparison in my opinion, and you will get completely different numbers (in millions of units):

    Samsung Q1 '17: 80.2
    Apple Q1 '17: 50.8

    Let's also not forget these are SHIPMENTS only, not sales, so the title of this article is clearly wrong and misleading.
    This is nonsense. It's not Apple's problem that all the android makers sell lots of different models to see what sticks to the wall. When one talks about the top selling auto, it's the single top selling auto -- no ifs, ands, ors, or buts. Same thing. 

    And please, with Apple and iphones, shipments are sales. They don't sit around in warehouses like the other crap.
    That's where product strategies are. Not all companies have strategy to sell a single product the most. They rather choose to divide them serving different market segments. These companies like Samsung or even Huwai might become much more successful tomorrow yet might not manage to outsell iPhone by any of their individual models. This way of comparison seems biased to me too. 
  • Reply 15 of 15
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 13,089member
    iushnt1 said:
    pepe779 said:
    This report is heavily biased though. All it does is it takes advantage of the sheer amount of combinations of android phone makers and all of their individual phone models. This way the iPhone will ALWAYS win easily. Yes, it's not Apple's fault that the android world is so fragmented, but at the same time this is not really a fair method of comparing these two worlds, because Apple and most of the other brands clearly have a different product strategy. Compare the the entire Apple iPhone line with the entire Samsung Galaxy line for example, which is a more accurate comparison in my opinion, and you will get completely different numbers (in millions of units):

    Samsung Q1 '17: 80.2
    Apple Q1 '17: 50.8

    Let's also not forget these are SHIPMENTS only, not sales, so the title of this article is clearly wrong and misleading.
    This is nonsense. It's not Apple's problem that all the android makers sell lots of different models to see what sticks to the wall. When one talks about the top selling auto, it's the single top selling auto -- no ifs, ands, ors, or buts. Same thing. 

    And please, with Apple and iphones, shipments are sales. They don't sit around in warehouses like the other crap.
    That's where product strategies are. Not all companies have strategy to sell a single product the most. They rather choose to divide them serving different market segments. These companies like Samsung or even Huwai might become much more successful tomorrow yet might not manage to outsell iPhone by any of their individual models. This way of comparison seems biased to me too. 
    It's not biased. The question is simple -- what is the best selling phone? The answer is likewise simple. You're muddying the waters trying to bring in product portfolios and strategies. 
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