The iPhone X remained ‘comfortably’ the best-shipping smartphone in Europe during Q1, according to the latest data from Canalys. It follows Strategy Analytics data showing that the same was true worldwide.
Canalys suggests that it’s a particularly impressive achievement at a time when ‘smartphone fatigue’ is seeing people resist the latest flagship models …
Smartphone fatigue hit Europe in Q1 2018, as shipments fell 6.3% year on year, the biggest ever drop in a single quarter. Western Europe bore the brunt, down 13.9% with 30.1 million units shipped […]
Apple outperformed the market and shipped over 10 million units, but this still represented a 5.4% decline. As a percentage of models shipped, the iPhone X declined slightly from Q4, to around 25%, but it remained comfortably the best-shipping smartphone in the region.
Premium brands are facing the twin challenges of people holding on to their phones for longer, and settling for cheaper brands, taking the view that most of today’s phones are pretty similar.
Flagship smartphone features have been increasingly commoditized by budget brands, which are bringing these specifications to the mid-market. The likes of Honor, Wiko and Xiaomi have been instrumental in driving growth in specifications such as dual and triple cameras, which grew over 150% on the previous year. Smartphone screens also continued to increase in size, with shipments of smartphones with screens larger than 5.5″ growing over 50%. The commoditization of 18:9 aspect ratio screens has been a catalyst for this growth.
The strength of the Apple brand and ecosystem has made the iPhone less vulnerable than Samsung, however.
Samsung remained on top, shipping over 15 million smartphones, but slipped 15% compared with last year as Huawei and Xiaomi put pressure on its low-end and mid-range models.
The firm noted that Apple’s wide choice of models has also been an important factor in keeping sales more buoyant than the market as a whole. It noted that three cheaper models – the iPhone SE, 6 and 6S – made up another 25% of iPhone sales, all models more than two years old.
Apple said during its recent earnings call that the iPhone X was the best-selling iPhone every week in Q1.
Photo: giga.de
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