As we’ve noted earlier on this blog, during most of the year, Apple’s latest iPhone range and Samsung’s Galaxy S series and Galaxy J series dominate the list of globally best-selling smartphones, at least as far as the top-10 list is concerned. The third quarter of 2017 saw the launch of Apple’s new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus and the announcement of the all-new flagship iPhone X, although the latter did not start shipping until November, well into the fourth quarter. As such, the new iPhones mainly competed with the rather similar-looking iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Despite their bezeled designs, these four popular models were the globally top-grossing smartphones in terms of wholesale revenue in Q3 2017, according to research published by Strategy Analytics’ Smartphone Model Tracker (SMT) service: Global Top-500 Smartphone Revenue, Value Share, ASP, and Price Band by Model: Q3 2017.
To make things even better for Apple, it had two other iPhone models in the top-10, so the company took an impressive 6 out of 10 spots. Filling out the gaps on the list were Samsung and Oppo, and it’s not very difficult to guess which models we’re talking about. Samsung’s success with the very capable but rather expensive Note 8 proved that consumers had forgiven the company’s past issues with the previous Note device.
Looking at the top-grossing smartphones, it’s clear that most belong to the premium-priced flagship category (i.e., the US$600+ or US$500-599 wholesale price tiers). Notable exceptions include the Oppo smartphone mentioned above, as well as the iPhone SE, which is Apple’s most affordable smartphone, though still priced above many mid-range smartphone models from other vendors. Besides the very high end of the market, looking slightly down the price tiers, it’s the models in the US$300-399 and US$191-299 price tiers that succeed in generating healthy revenue. It’s in these price tiers also that we start seeing models from brands other than Samsung and Apple in larger numbers.
Interested in seeing how different vendors and models occupy the seven different price tiers and what their shipments, revenue, and wholesale ASP are? Then refer to the report Global Top-500 Smartphone Shipments, ASP, and Price Band by Model: Q3 2017, available to clients of our SMT service.