Apple
Counterpoint has a new report on the top-selling phone models of 2023, and for the first time, the top seven sold models for the year are all iPhones. The report tracks worldwide sales of individual smartphone models, and while hundreds of new phones are released yearly, Counterpoint says this top-10 list represents a whopping 20 percent of the worldwide market.
The top three spots are all the iPhone 14 models, with the cheaper base model taking the top spot. 2023 saw the release of the iPhone 15, but only in September 2023. The iPhone 15 models rocketed to spots 5, 6, and 7 with only about three months of sales. Sandwiched in between the 14 and 15 models at No. 4 is the iPhone 13, the cheapest modern-looking iPhone Apple sells.
Counterpoint
The actual cheapest iPhone, the iPhone SE, didn’t make the list this year. The dated design and (maybe?) small size isn’t resonating with consumers, and right now, the rumor mill suggests Apple won’t be making another SE. The 2022 version of this report included the SE, so eight of the top 10 devices were Apple phones, but a Samsung phone crept in at spot No. 4.
Speaking of Samsung, the bottom three phones in the list are all Samsung phones, but probably none anyone has ever heard of. Samsung has plenty of expensive flagships, like the Galaxy Z Fold at $1,800, but the phones it ships at volume are all budget devices. Spot No. 8 is the $200 Galaxy A14 5G. No. 9 is the very bottom of Samsung’s phone lineup, the $100 Galaxy A04e, and then, at No. 10, a Galaxy A14 4G (not 5G), which is around $160. We’re trying to go by MSRP for these phone prices, but they all tend not to sell at MSRP. These cheaper devices are frequently on sale or are available as burner phones on a two-year pre-paid plan at a big discount.
It’s hard for any Samsung phone to stand out in the market because Samsung releases so many devices. If we look at the GSM Arena’s database for phones released from 2021–2023, Apple has released 13 phones, while Samsung has 89 different models.
