Skip to main content

88 percent of the $800-plus smartphones sold last quarter were iPhones

It’s no secret that there are far more Android phones out there than iPhones, but it turns out that could have a little more to do with price ranges than previously thought. Why? Well, Apple globally sold a whopping 43 percent of all phones priced $400 or above in the second quarter of 2018. In other words, 43 percent of the people who can afford an iPhone are buying one — which is far more than the 20.45 percent market share that iOS holds overall.

The report comes from Counterpoint Research, which notes that on top of shipping 43 percent of phones above $400, Apple also swept up a massive 62 percent of the profits generated from smartphone sales in the second quarter of 2018. That’s way ahead of the likes of Samsung, which made 17 percent of the profits, as well as Huawei, with 8 percent, Oppo, with 5 percent, and Vivo, with 4 percent.

Recommended Videos

Perhaps most interesting are the so-called “premium” sales, which are defined as sales of smartphones that cost over $400. As mentioned, Apple held 43 percent of premium sales, beating out Samsung, which came in with 24 percent, and Oppo, which offered 10 percent. In the $400 to $600 range, Apple and Oppo were tied at 22 percent of sales, and in the $600 to $800 range Apple beat out Samsung with 44 percent of sales.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Apple shot ahead in the $800-plus range, selling a whopping 88 percent of phones.

According to Counterpoint, Samsung lagged a little more than expected in the second quarter of 2018. In particular, the company’s share in the $600 to $800 range was on the decline with fewer than expected sales of the Samsung Galaxy S9.

Of course, in general Samsung sells far more smartphones than Apple, but this latest report highlights the fact that those numbers are mostly focused in the sub-$400 range.

The news becomes even more interesting for Apple when we consider the fact that the second quarter of 2018 may well have been its worst quarter of the year. This was the quarter right before it launched a slew of new iPhones — so many customers would have been holding out to see what Apple released at its September 12 event.

So despite the fact that Apple only releases new phones once per year, it still commands a large percentage of the profits — and it’s unlikely that will slow in the near future.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
Google’s Gemini is getting a lot smarter for iPhone users
Using Gemini Deep Research on a smartphone.

Google's Gemini AI just got a major buff for iPhone users with the addition of its Deep Research feature. Google first added this feature to Android devices, but it's dropping in a phased rollout to the iPhone. If you don't yet see this function, give it some time; at the time of writing, it hasn't hit our phones here at Digital Trends yet.

The Deep Research feature "uses advanced reasoning and long context capabilities to act as a research assistant, exploring complex topics and compiling reports on your behalf." This enables Gemini to do comprehensive, in-depth research on nearly any topic, but be warned: the process is not fast.

Read more
The iPhone upgrade cycle is speeding up. Is this the Apple Intelligence effect?
An iPhone showing an Apple Intelligence rendering of Steve Jobs in the Image Playground app.

Apple has expressed hope that Apple Intelligence will accelerate the iPhone upgrade cycle. A new report suggests that the AI software may be achieving this goal, at least by a little bit.

According to the latest Apple Report from CIRP, consumers are trading in their iPhones for newer models at a faster rate. This is encouraging news for Apple since customers have been keeping their phones for longer periods in recent years.

Read more
Is the Galaxy S25 Ultra zoom the best? I tested it and it’s close
The back of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

The year was 2020, the month was February and Samsung had just kicked off yet another smartphone generation. The Galaxy S20 Ultra brought a lot of new features to the market, but crucially, Samsung’s marketing also made long zoom features and Ultra branding extremely desirable.

One of the key reasons to buy the Galaxy S20 Ultra — and subsequent Ultra phones from Samsung — was the camera. It featured a 108MP main sensor, a 12MP ultrawide camera, and a 48MP periscope telephoto camera that offered 4x optical zoom and 10x hybrid zoom. The latter also enabled the new 100X Space Zoom feature, which Samsung still promotes on its Ultra phones today.

Read more