Skip to main content

Apple passes Samsung in smartphone sales, as newer models are shunned

Consumers of smartphones are choosing to ignore the shiny new models in favor of older, cheaper models, according to the International Data Corporation‘s (IDC) analysis of smartphone sales in the last quarter of 2017.

A disappointing holiday season punctuated the end of the year, with overall global sales dropping 6.3 percent when compared to the previous year’s final quarter. In real terms, that’s only a drop to 403.5 million units from the 430.7 million units shipped in the final months of 2016, but it paints a worrying trend for the mobile phone magnates at the top of the totem pole. Despite 2017 seeing some of the most gorgeous smartphones that we’ve ever seen, with powerful internal components and bezel-less designs that pushed style through the roof, it seems that consumers are reacting against the concurrent trend that saw prices rise, with the iPhone X — one of the year’s most anticipated phones — topping the scales at $1,000.

Recommended Videos

“The latest flock of posh flagships may have had consumers hitting the pause button in the holiday quarter,” said Anthony Scarsella, research manager for Mobile Phones at IDC. “With ultra-high-end flagships all the rage in 2017, many of these new bezel-less wonders proved to be more of a luxury than a necessity among upgraders […] the new and higher price points could be outweighing the benefits of having the latest and greatest device in hand.”

The end result of this consumer hesitation seems to be an increase in interest for older, slightly cheaper flagships. Interestingly, analysts had previously predicted this trend in December, when sales of the iPhone X turned out to be less than expected.

Despite the setback for the ultra-premium flagship and lower sales than the previous year, Apple still had a good quarter, beating Samsung to the top spot in overall smartphone sales for the fourth quarter. Shipping 77.3 million units compared to Samsung’s 74.1 million, Apple heads into 2018 in a good position, despite rumors that it will be retiring the iPhone X in the summer.

Still, Samsung won’t be too upset, as it leaves 2017 with a grand total of 317.3 million shipments over the entire year, easily beating second-place Apple’s total of 215.8 million units.

Chinese brands Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo come in at third, fourth, and fifth respectively, with Xiaomi in particular seeing a massive 96.9-percent growth over last year’s fourth quarter — the only phone manufacturer in the top five to successfully increase their global sales in the same period. Still, with 28.1 million units sold, it has a long way to go to beat Huawei’s 41 million-unit mark.

In terms of overall smartphone sales for 2017, we’ve seen a very small decline, year-on-year as global sales dropped from 1,473.4 million units to 1,472.4 million units — a fall of 0.1-percent. While it’s barely an official drop, the news that premium flagship handsets with the latest features are failing to attract consumers may well be a rude awakening for those companies who have let prices rise and rise over the year.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Mark Jansen
Mobile Evergreen Editor
Mark Jansen is an avid follower of everything that beeps, bloops, or makes pretty lights. He has a degree in Ancient &…
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Everything we know so far
Leaked render of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 showing its front and rear profiles.

It feels like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 was only released yesterday, but Samsung's most advanced smartphone ever was actually revealed almost a year ago now. And that means another uber-premium Samsung foldable is on the horizon. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 hasn't been officially revealed yet, but we have plenty of leaks to dig into. Here's everything you need to know about this upcoming new foldable, when you might be able to expect it, and what it might include.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Design and display
The Galaxy Z Fold 6. Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Samsung has been receiving some justifiable criticism recently for allowing its foldables to stagnate, especially following some new designs from Chinese phone companies. It doesn't look as if we'll be getting any huge changes with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but Samsung is definitely making some alterations that will freshen up the Z Fold range.

Read more
Samsung may bring Now Brief to more Galaxy smartphones
Now brief on the Samsung Galaxy S25.

Samsung’s popular new AI tool, Now Brief, might soon make its way beyond the Galaxy S25 to older models like the Galaxy S24. While Samsung hasn’t officially confirmed this yet, recent software clues suggest the company could roll out the handy AI assistant to a wider range of Galaxy devices.

X user MEMETCAN88 (via Android Authority) discovered that Now Brief was accessible on a Galaxy S24 phone by way of the activity launcher when using the One UI 7 beta. Further, additional users (via SamMobile) were able to access it with phones like the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S10, Galaxy Z Fold 6, and Galaxy Z Flip 6.

Read more
Samsung confirms One UI 7 release date for first wave of Galaxy owners
Samsung phone running One UI 7 software experience.

The wait for Android 15 on Samsung smartphones will finally be over early next month. Samsung has announced that the highly-anticipated One UI 7 update will be released widely via the stable channel starting April 7 for Galaxy smartphone users.
In the first wave of rollout, the Galaxy S24 series phones, alongside Samsung’s current generation foldable — Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 — will be covered. It will eventually expand to older flagships, alongside a bunch of mid-range phones in the Galaxy A-series, as well.
In the coming weeks, One UI 7 will also land on the Galaxy S24 FE, Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy S23 FE, Galaxy Z Fold 5, and Galaxy Z Flip 5 phones. On the tablet side, the Galaxy Tab S10 will be the early recipient, followed by the Galaxy Tab S9 series.
A Guided Demo of Galaxy AI | Galaxy S25 Series | Samsung
Samsung kicked off the beta-testing program in December last year, and in the past few weeks, the pool of devices has steadily expanded. One UI 7 brings a fresh design language to the phone, with a cleaner Home Screen, improved widgets, and more intuitive lock screen.
Leading the list of new features is the new Now Bar, which tracks important events and keeps users updated via a dedicated widget, right on the Lock Screen. AI is a huge part of the One UI 7 experience, riding under the Galaxy AI banner. Among them is a feature called AI Select, which is aware of the on-screen content, and based on what users highlight, it will offer actionable buttons.
Galaxy AI | Now Brief | Galaxy S25 Ultra | Samsung
For example, if there’s a ticket in the camera view, AI select can automatically surface one-tap controls such as adding it to the Calendar or showing the venue on Google Maps. Then there’s Writing Assist, which offers a handful of AI-powered facilities such as rewriting, summarization, and proofreading, working in the same vein as Writing Tools on Apple devices.
However, do keep in mind that not all One UI 7 features will be available across every compatible device. For example, the audio eraser feature, which can selectively erase noise from videos, will not go beyond phones older than the Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy Tab S10 duo, or the sixth-generation Samsung foldable phones. Similar is the situation with natural language search in the Settings app.

Read more