People always want to buy a top-selling smartphone or the best smartphone, be it powered by Android or Apple iOS operating system. However, the selection process is not going to be easy for anyone as the market is flooded with options.
For choices are limited for Apple users as the Cupertino giant launches only 3-4 variants of iPhone in a year. In contrast, the smartphone market is flooded with Android-powered smartphones providing users with a wide array of options to choose from.
In spite of such imbalance, Apple has topped the chart of top selling smartphones in Q1 2021, both in terms of value and volume.
Top Selling Smartphone Q1 2021: By Value
The global smartphone revenue surpassed the $100 billion mark for the first time in Q1 2021. The increasing demand for flagship smartphones, such as iPhone 12, 12 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G, Huawei Mate 40 Pro, etc., has helped smartphone comapnies to sell more devices during the first quarter.
According to the latest Counterpoint Research report, the top 10 highest revenue grossing models captured close to 46% of the total global smartphone revenues in Q1 2021. 5G was the driving factor in the smartphone industry.
The list of top 10 highest revenue-generating smartphones was dominated by Apple. In fact, the top 4 best-selling smartphones in terms of volume and value were made by Apple. The most expensive iPhone 12 Pro Max accounted for 12% of the total revenue generated by the top 10 most selling smartphones in Q1 2021. It was also the best-selling model in its homegrown market, US.
This is followed by iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and one and a half-year-old iPhone 11, respectively.
Despite losing the top spots, the performance of Samsung wasn’t much disappointing. The Korean smartphone giant captured 3 out of 10 places in the list of best smartphones by revenue share in Q1 2021. Stands at 5th place, Android-powered Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G accounted for 3% share of the total global smartphone revenue during the first quarter. The S21 Ultra 5G was sold more than its other lower variants in the US and Europe.
Ranked at 8th spot, Huawei Mate 40 Pro accounted for 2% of the global top 10 most selling smartphone revenues in Q1 2021.
It is important to note that all smartphones in the list of ‘top 10 highest revenue grossing models’ were 5G capable, except for iPhone 11 and iPhone SE 2020. Smartphone manufacturers like Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, etc. are now betting big on 5G market by launching 5G flagship devices due to the increasing public demand. According to IDC, 5G smartphones are expected to account for more than 40% of the global shipments by the end of 2021.
Best Selling Smartphones Q1 2021: By Volume
When we filter the list of top selling smartphone models by the sales figures, the section is dominated by budget Android smartphones from Xiaomi and Samsung. The overall list, however, is once again dominated by Apple as the low-priced iPhone 12 emerged as the top selling smartphone above iPhone 12 Pro Max which dominated the list by value.
Once again, all the top spots in the list of most selling smartphones by volume are secured by Apple iPhone, led by the latest iPhone 12 series models.
However, Xiaomi’s Redmi 9A and and Redmi 9 emerged as more popular devices than Samsung’s best selling smartphones in Q1 2021.
The list of top selling smartphones by volume is highly influenced by Smartphone OEMs performance in China and India as the these two countries account for a lion’s share of the global smartphone market, both in terms of value and volume.
Overall, the dominance of Apple and Samsung over the global smartphone market is quite evident. However, the growth of the Android smartphone market is still led by the sub-$200 segment as six out of the top 10 smartphone models, ranked by volume, belong to this segment only.
