US iPhone sales grew a record 16% in Q1 despite 11% drop across market – Counterpoint

IDC figures showed that Apple managed to grow global iPhone sales in Q1 despite falling sales across the smartphone market as a whole, and new data from Counterpoint shows that the same was true in the US market – to a far more dramatic extent …

Counterpoint reports that iPhone sales for the first quarter of the year grew 16% year-on-year, a new record for Apple, at a time when the market as a whole dropped 11%.

Apple shipped a record 16 million iPhones for the first time ever in a Q1 in the US. This is a 16% YoY increase, with the OEM showing continued success in taking share away from Samsung in the premium market space. It now commands 80% of the +$800 price band.

This puts Apple’s US market share at 42%, almost double that of second-placed Samsung at 22%. There was particularly good news, indeed, when comparing Apple to Samsung.

Samsung’s sales declined 4% YoY which indicate weaker sell-through of their premium Galaxy models. Overall, Apple’s super-premium segment ($800 and above) accounted for 20% of US total sales during Q1. Samsung contributed 8%.

In all, six of the ten best-selling smartphones in the country are iPhones (though Counterpoint breaks them down by storage tier, so the iPhone X and iPhone X both get two places, as seen below).

There had been much skepticism about iPhone X pricing, with analysts wondering just how far Apple could push pricing beyond $800, but Counterpoint said that this so-called super-premium segment now accounts for a full 28% of the US market.

Counterpoint said that Samsung Galaxy S9 sales had been ‘sluggish,’ though they were expected to pick up this quarter – but only as a result of incentives like generous trade-in deals on older models.

There has been consistent good news for Apple from all the major market intelligence firms of late. Earlier this month, Strategy Analytics echoed IDC in declaring the iPhone X the world’s best-selling smartphone, while Canalys reported that the iPhone X remained ‘comfortably’ the best-shipping smartphone in Europe.

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