Q1 iPhone Sales Grow 16% in US Despite 11% Domestic Market Decline: Counterpoint

Despite global smartphone sales starting to decline after many years of constant and impressive growth, Apple managed to defy all trends and boost its Q1 2018 shipment numbers.

According to new data from Counterpoint Research, the overall U.S. smartphone market declined 11 percent versus the same time last year. Apple, on the other hand, shipped a record 16 million handsets in Q1 — representing a 16 percent increase year-on-year.

Apple also managed to snag some market share away from Samsung when it comes to premium smartphones. Apple now accounts for 80 percent of the sales of the devices that are priced $800 USD and above. Overall, Apple’s market share is 42 percent in the U.S., which is almost twice that of Samsung, who commands 22 percent of the market share.

Samsung’s sales decreased 4 percent year-on-year which reflect poorer sales of the company’s Galaxy brand of phones. Apple’s super premium segment commanded 20 percent of the total sales in the U.S. for the Q1. In contrast, Samsung only accounted for 8 percent of the total sales.

“Overall we see Apple’s continued dominance in the top sellers for Q1 as the X and 8 series hold the top spots with the older Galaxy devices not far behind,” says Counterpoint Research Director Jeff Fieldhack. “S9 pre-sales were sluggish compared to S8 sales last year but will probably pick up sales momentum in the following months as carriers are offering good trade-in deals. Motorola has been doing well with the E4 due to its low cost and solid specs for the price point—very dependable within prepaid and national retail channels.”

Incredibly, six of the ten best-selling smartphones in the country are iPhones (though Counterpoint breaks them down by storage tier, so the iPhone X and iPhone X both get two places).

Earlier this month, Strategy Analytics crowned Apple’s iPhone X the world’s best-selling smartphone.

P.S. - Like our news? Support the site with a coffee/beer. Or shop with our Amazon link. We use affiliate links when possible--thank you for supporting independent media.