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Apple's iPhone 5s Still The Top Selling Smartphone Worldwide

Chuck Jones
Senior Contributor
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
I cover technology companies, worldwide economies and the stock market
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This article is more than 10 years old.

Counterpoint research released its worldwide smartphone survey for February and it showed that Apple ’s iPhones were in the top two positions with the 5s and 5c in first and second place. The 5s has also been the top selling smartphone worldwide since it was launched six months ago. Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and Note 3 were in third and fourth, respectively, for February. (Note that my family and I own Apple shares and I have sold put options which is a bullish strategy).

The top five positions did not change from January to February with Apple’s iPhone 4S taking the fifth position. What is interesting is that Xiaomi smartphones held the 7th and 10th spots in the February survey vs. the 6th position in the January survey.

Counterpoint wrote “The big surprise is little known Xiaomi as two of its newest devices enter the ranks of the Global top 10 in February. The Hongmi Redrice comes in at 7th place (6th in January) and the MI3 at 10th place. The Hongmi Redrice is an affordable quad core device with a 4.7” screen running on a 3G network while the MI 3 is a phablet with a 5” vibrant screen with 441 ppi resolution but again much more affordable than its competitors from international brands. These are both 3G phones and mainly sold in just one country, China. It only recently started to ship to neighboring countries.

Commenting on the analysis, Counterpoint Research Director, Tom Kang noted, “We expect some changes in March and April as the new Galaxy S5 becomes available and the iPhone 5c discounts have ceased. We are also seeing good performances from the Motorola G and Huawei LTE models so there might be some volatility in the best seller’s list.”

iPhone 5s held the top 6 positions in the Japanese market in March

BCN ranking tracks smartphones by vendor and memory size on a weekly and monthly basis. Its March survey shows that the iPhone 5s still held the top 6 spots in the month and slipped slightly after that compared to February.

The 5c had three of the top 10 positions in December but its best showing in February was at #14 and March was #13. For the months of December, February and March the various iPhones by models, storage capacity and carriers held the following positions:

December rankings

  • iPhone 5s: #1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 12, 13, 18, 24  (29.3% share)
  • iPhone 5c: #3, 5, 9, 23, 28   (14.7% share)
  • Softbank held #1, 4, 5, 13, 28
  • Au held #2, 3, 7, 18, 23
  • NTT DoCoMo held #6, 9, 12, 24

February rankings

  • iPhone 5s: #1-6, 12, 21, 27   (44.5% share)
  • iPhone 5c: #14, 17   (5.9% share)
  • Softbank held #2, 4, 12, 17
  • KDDI (au) held #1, 5, 21
  • NTT DoCoMo held #3, 6, 27

March rankings

  • iPhone 5s: #1-6, 20, 25, 27
  • iPhone 5c: #13, 17
  • Softbank held #1, 5, 13, 20
  • KDDI (au) held #2, 4, 17, 25
  • NTT DoCoMo held #3, 6, 27

Follow me on Twitter @sandhillinsight. You can find my other Forbes posts here.

Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones