Apple’s iPhone XR and iPhone 11 were most popular 2019 smartphones – Omdia
The iPhone XR was the world’s most popular smartphone in 2019, easily out-shipping all other models according to Omdia’s newly-published Smartphone Model Market Tracker report.
iPhone 11 takes second place
Remarkably, Apple’s iPhone 11 was the second most popular device, the report claims. This is significant as the device was available for only part of the year.
Apple shipped 46.3 million iPhone XR smartphones last year, more than doubling the 23.1 million units in 2018, the report states.
iPhone XR shipments in 2019 were 9 million units higher than the second-most popular model, Apple’s iPhone 11, which achieved shipments of 37.3 million units for the year (albeit in one single quarter).
“Apple has consistently owned the first and second positions in the global smartphone model shipment ranking, with the company maintaining this dominant position for more than five years running,” said Jusy Hong, smartphone research and analysis director at Omdia.
“The company’s continued dominance on this front is all the more remarkable when considering that Apple’s price hikes caused overall iPhone shipments to decline last year. By limiting the number of models it offers compared to its top competitors, Apple has been able to concentrate its sales on a few smartphones that have broad appeal, like the iPhone XR.”
The cheapest iPhone model released last year, the iPhone 11, was priced at $699, up $50 from $649 of iPhone 7 in 2016.
As iPhone sales prices rose continuously, Apple’s overall shipments declined for two consecutive years, dropping by 5.1 percent in 2018 and by 4.6 percent in 2019.
Samsung sees highs and lows
Samsung took third through fifth ranks in 2019, with the company’s Galaxy A10, Galaxy A50 and Galaxy A20 attaining shipments of 30.3 million, 24.2 million and 23.1 million units respectively.
Gerrit Schneeman, senior analyst, smartphones for Omdia said:
“Samsung in 2019 greatly increased the number of variants of its flagship model by introducing low-priced models, along with 5G smartphones. Omdia believes that shipments are dispersed among the variants, preventing the Galaxy S10 from attaining higher total shipments.”
Just as in 2018, Apple and Samsung owned nine out of 10 models in the shipment ranking in 2019. The lone model from another brand was Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 7, which came in eighth last year.
5G is coming
Shipments of 5G smartphones totalled 14.7 million units in 2019. Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G shipped the most, with 2.6 million units in 2019. Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro 5G came in a close second, with 2.5 million units, just 100,000 fewer than the Samsung model. Samsung accounted for 49 percent of the global 5G smartphone market.
