Apple's iPhone 11 Was the Most Popular Smartphone in Q1 2020

[AshRiver]

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/05/26/iphone-11-most-popular-q1-2020/

Quote

Apple's iPhone 11 was the most in-demand smartphone during the first quarter of 2020, even as the world weathered a global pandemic, according to new research shared today by research firm Omdia.

Quote

Apple shipped an estimated 19.5 million ‌iPhone 11‌ models during the quarter, thanks to the more affordable price tag of the device along with its robust feature set.

"For more than five years--even amid shifting conditions in the wireless market and the global economy--one thing has remained consistent in the smartphone business: Apple has taken either the first or second rank in Omdia's global model shipment ranking," said Jusy Hong, director of smartphone research at Omdia. "Apple's success is the result of its strategy to offer relatively few models. This has allowed the company to focus its efforts on a small number of products that appeal to a broad selection of consumers and sell in extremely high volumes."

Samsung's Galaxy A51 was the second most popular smartphone with 6.8 million units shipped, followed by the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 and Note 8 Pro, with 6.6 and 6.1 million units shipped, respectively.

Apple's iPhone XR, which was the best-selling smartphone in the year-ago quarter, took the fourth spot with 4.7 million units shipped. The ‌iPhone XR‌ was more popular than the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max, though it's worth noting that those two smartphones were counted individually rather than together.

Quote

Apple shipped an estimated 4.2 million iPhone 11 Pro Max models and an estimated 3.8 million ‌iPhone 11 Pro‌ models, for a combined total of 8 million smartphones shipped. Had those been counted as a combined total, the two models would have placed second in the shipment rankings.

 

No wonder Apple IPhones are gone off the shelves real quick while Samsung phones are left on the shelves to gather dust. Not saying Samsung is bad, but that is what I am seeing in my local Target and Best Buy stores. 

[SupaKomputa]

Apple = rich

Samsung = poor

Xiaomi = underprivileged

[spartaman64]

no reason to buy samsung after they removed headphone jacks and try to do everything they can to copy apple. might as well just buy an apple

[Commodus]

I know Apple has had similar performance before, but I can't help but think the pandemic 'helped' to a degree.  Lockdowns in the first quarter mainly involved China and South Korea, where brands like Redmi (Xiaomi, really) and Samsung are more dominant.  It could be a different story in Q2 with Apple's strongholds under lockdown for most or all of the period.

[leetcoder]

Interesting. Covid-19 affected sales but this is not the case with Apple. S20 have been sloopy... 

[hishnash]

What i will be interested to see is how successful the next iPhone is, if the rumours are true that they are changing how it looks to go back to the iPhone4 style i think they could have a lot of sales.

[RejZoR]

I mean, is this really a surprise? Before this, iPhone XR was the most sold iPhone. Given iPhone 11 is a successor to iPhone XR, I'm not really surprised. They made it like 50€ cheaper than XR, again gave it best chipset they have, gave it tiny bit larger battery and better camera by adding wide lens.

[Dabombinable]

17 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

Apple = rich

Samsung = poor

Xiaomi = underprivileged

Samsung has gotten to the point where I'm better off recommending people go with their A series as an upgrade from a dead/dying S5. Their flagships aren't as good (relatively speaking) as their older models.

[mr moose]

2 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

Samsung has gotten to the point where I'm better off recommending people go with their A series as an upgrade from a dead/dying S5. Their flagships aren't as good (relatively speaking) as their older models.

Yet they are selling hand over fist more than every other brand even after losing 18% of their sales.  When I used to work for a small manufacturer here in Aus, their sales budget was set on the trends of % of current owners who upgrade regularly.   With Samsung, their A series is still selling exceptionally well while everything else is falling like lead shot (most manufacturers have lost massive sales this year due to covid) the phones that haven't lost sales are the big US sellers that people upgrade on release all the time anyway (like the A series and iphone).

 

For me personally, right now I will not be buying either Samsung or apple.

 

IDC article for those interested in the whole market:

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS46264320

[SupaKomputa]

10 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

Samsung has gotten to the point where I'm better off recommending people go with their A series as an upgrade from a dead/dying S5. Their flagships aren't as good (relatively speaking) as their older models.

THe midrange just got better. Those phones have older flagship features (1-2 years). If your looking for "it just work" phone, no sense having the bleeding edge.

Apple is smart on this, their budget phone (SE) very much apart from the high end.

[Dabombinable]

2 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

THe midrange just got better. Those phones have older flagship features (1-2 years). If your looking for "it just work" phone, no sense having the bleeding edge.

Apple is smart on this, their budget phone (SE) very much apart from the high end.

Unfortunately, Samsung hasn't gotten the memo that flagships still need to be truly special to actually sell well. And not have reduced features over their midrange products.

[ki8aras]

20 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

no reason to buy samsung after they removed headphone jacks and try to do everything they can to copy apple. might as well just buy an apple

here in europe we dont even consider the s20 series because we have the exynos versions...

[ki8aras]

7 hours ago, hishnash said:

What i will be interested to see is how successful the next iPhone is, if the rumours are true that they are changing how it looks to go back to the iPhone4 style i think they could have a lot of sales.

honestly i don't think people will buy it just for it looks, they could make a phone in the shape of an ass and they would still sell buttloads of them

[hishnash]

5 minutes ago, Kaloob said:

They've gone past the line with things like the ads in the OS. 

what?

[ki8aras]

7 minutes ago, Kaloob said:

I mean Samsung still has expandable storage, which is a must for me.

Also I much prefer Android.

Never giving them another dime directly, though (for a phone/tablet). They've gone past the line with things like the ads in the OS. 

yeah, when tf did that happen

[TetraSky]

So, is this legit in-store product sales (Electronic stores were open in the US? They were non-essential in QC) or just people "buying" the newest iPhone because of whatever "upgrade" program from their carrier?

[Brooksie359]

On 5/27/2020 at 9:36 AM, spartaman64 said:

no reason to buy samsung after they removed headphone jacks and try to do everything they can to copy apple. might as well just buy an apple

That or buy a different android phone. At least with apple I sorta expect it and is sorta part of their brand but with Samsung I just don't get why they would follow in the footsteps of apple when they had made advertisements specifically showing off that they still has a headphone jack for one of their previous phones. Shit is ridiculous. 

[Video Beagle]

16 hours ago, Brooksie359 said:

Samsung I just don't get why they would follow in the footsteps of apple when they had made advertisements specifically showing off that they still has a headphone jack for one of their previous phones. Shit is ridiculous. 

Because they saw Apple didn't lose sales by ditching the jack, and ditching it gives them extra space to do stuff with. It's just how tech companies work.. Someone does a big change, competitors advertise against it...then adopt it if it proves worthwhile.

[mr moose]

23 hours ago, TetraSky said:

So, is this legit in-store product sales (Electronic stores were open in the US? They were non-essential in QC) or just people "buying" the newest iPhone because of whatever "upgrade" program from their carrier?

Most lock downs occurred after mid March, which means only 2 weeks left of the first quarter so plenty of time for sales.  And yes, almost regardless what happens globally, the same people upgrade every year for the top end of both apple and Samsung phones, Given apple only has top tier phones and Samsung's mid range phones all dived in sales last year, Apples sales were a good bet. 

[Brooksie359]

10 hours ago, Video Beagle said:

Because they saw Apple didn't lose sales by ditching the jack, and ditching it gives them extra space to do stuff with. It's just how tech companies work.. Someone does a big change, competitors advertise against it...then adopt it if it proves worthwhile.

Apple and Samsung are not the same and Samsung can't get away with the same stuff as apple simply because there is only on company that sells products with iOS and the like while there are many that sell android devices. If you want iOS then apple is the only option unfortunately even if you don't like that they removed it. It's something people will live with while on android not only do they have other options but android users are generally less loyal to any one company compared to people who buy apple. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

18 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Apple and Samsung are not the same and Samsung can't get away with the same stuff as apple simply because there is only on company that sells products with iOS and the like while there are many that sell android devices. If you want iOS then apple is the only option unfortunately even if you don't like that they removed it. It's something people will live with while on android not only do they have other options but android users are generally less loyal to any one company compared to people who buy apple. 

Absolutely. And some others have eluded to this earlier, there is this unspoken prestige that comes with Apple products. To me, this is exactly like what's happening in the car industry for years. The clip below pretty much explains exactly what I'm on about. Just shift the topic from cars to smartphones. 

 

[Commodus]

On 5/28/2020 at 12:00 PM, Brooksie359 said:

That or buy a different android phone. At least with apple I sorta expect it and is sorta part of their brand but with Samsung I just don't get why they would follow in the footsteps of apple when they had made advertisements specifically showing off that they still has a headphone jack for one of their previous phones. Shit is ridiculous. 

Samsung's MO is to imitate rivals if there's even the slightest hint that their strategies are successful.  Apple is the obvious example, but it even put out a blatant BlackBerry imitator, the BlackJack, when RIM was on top.  Lawsuits and market evolution toned things down somewhat, but Samsung still has this urge to follow in others' footsteps instead of leading.

 

With that said, you could see Samsung's reversal on headphone jacks coming a mile away.  There was a real hubris to it, and so many people confused a cynical marketing ploy with a sincere promise that Samsung practically had to drop the jack to remind them that it's a company, not a best friend.

[mr moose]

32 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Samsung's MO is to imitate rivals if there's even the slightest hint that their strategies are successful.  Apple is the obvious example, but it even put out a blatant BlackBerry imitator, the BlackJack, when RIM was on top.  Lawsuits and market evolution toned things down somewhat, but Samsung still has this urge to follow in others' footsteps instead of leading.

Every manufacturer copies others to an extent (even the iphone is a conglomeration of the best parts of other devices).  no one has single handedly developed any tech in reality, it is all a slightly better version of what existed before.  The thing that makes this particular issue stand out is as you put it below:

 

32 minutes ago, Commodus said:

With that said, you could see Samsung's reversal on headphone jacks coming a mile away.  There was a real hubris to it, and so many people confused a cynical marketing ploy with a sincere promise that Samsung practically had to drop the jack to remind them that it's a company, not a best friend.

 

The thing that makes this worse is that it happened in the space of 2 years.  Had it happened 6 or 7 years later when no one was using 3.5 anymore it would be easy to take.   While there is nothing in this that warrants pitchforks, it does show us just how much people forget that companies don't care about them and only care about the contents of their wallet.

[Commodus]

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

Every manufacturer copies others to an extent (even the iphone is a conglomeration of the best parts of other devices).  no one has single handedly developed any tech in reality, it is all a slightly better version of what existed before.  The thing that makes this particular issue stand out is as you put it below:

Companies riff on each other's ideas often, true, and Apple isn't an exception.  However, there is a difference between "if we don't have that, we'll lose ground" and Samsung's "let's imitate it as explicitly as possible" strategy.  Hell, I remember witnessing some of this first-hand: I saw the original, chunky Galaxy Tab 10.1 design that was made to look like the first-gen iPad... and then the redesign, which looked more like the iPad 2 and was 'conveniently' ready just five weeks after Samsung showed the original.  There was literally no reason for the first design to be shaped like it was other than that it resembled the first-gen iPad.

 

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

The thing that makes this worse is that it happened in the space of 2 years.  Had it happened 6 or 7 years later when no one was using 3.5 anymore it would be easy to take.   While there is nothing in this that warrants pitchforks, it does show us just how much people forget that companies don't care about them and only care about the contents of their wallet.

That much is for sure.  Samsung really did just see it as a short-term marketing point it could wield so long as its phones headphone jacks, not as something innately valuable.