As we’ve noted earlier, the first quarter tends to be Samsung’s quarter, with new flagship smartphone models from the world’s largest handset manufacturer typically arriving in February-March timeframe. But, this year was a bit different, as the all-new Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ were only launched in April. This means the Q1 market dynamics in many countries were somewhat different from previous years, although Samsung was consistent in bringing its new higher mid-range A series models to the market in January, most notably the Galaxy A5 (2017) and the Galaxy A3 (2017). These two models had a strong start in the United Kingdom smartphone market, while their year-old incarnations continued to sell well, too. The Galaxy S7 and the S7 edge performed reasonably well in the UK, although with the S8 and S8+ waiting just around the corner, many consumers were clearly holding off in favor of the new flagship generation.

According to latest research by Strategy Analytics’ Smartphone Model Tracker (SMT) service, Apple renewed its triple lead on the list of best-selling smartphones in the UK as of Q1 2017. The iPhone 7 and the 7 Plus were there, of course, but so was the iPhone SE. Rounding out the top-10 was the iPhone 6s, so all in all, it was a very strong quarter for Apple, despite Samsung having more models in the top-10.

What about Google's Pixel? Well, it made it to the top-50 list, but sales had slumped from the previous quarter, i.e., Q4 2016. Huawei also had a few entries, but it's new P10 was not yet showing impressive shipment volumes.

Interested in seeing the top-50 list of best-selling smartphones sold in the UK in Q1 2017, complete with shipments and market share? It’s available in the just published report United Kingdom : Smartphone Shipments & Marketshare by Model: Q1 2017. Clients of our SMT service can view the report here.