The iPhone was the best-selling tech product of 2017, says a USA Today report, outselling all the products in slots #2 to #5 combined. It follows news that Apple dominated device activations leading up to Christmas.
USA Today says that Samsung takes second place with combined sales of its Galaxy S8 and Note 8 flagships, left way behind in the dust at just 33M.
Samsung would undoubtedly claim that the chart is unfair: it lumps together all iPhone models sold during the year against just two models from the Korean company. On the other hand, it’s not unreasonable to say that all iPhones qualify as premium phones, so they shouldn’t be compared with Samsung’s mid-range A-series and low-end J-series models. It also doesn’t help Samsung that last year’s phablet, the Galaxy Note 7, wasn’t in the running after its global recall.
Apple also took slot 4, with Apple Watch sales of 20M, ahead of the Nintendo Switch, with 15M sales.
If the iPhone numbers are correct, that will leave Apple trailing its 2015 record of 230M sales, but GBH Insights thinks it will do even better next year.
That will be helped, thinks one analyst, by price reductions.
While the iPhone X will make up a sizeable slice of Apple’s 2017 sales, two recent reports agree that the flagship model has been outsold by combined sales of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.
Photo: AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast
