Apple Inc. is still struggling to persuade its investors to trust on the company’s performance. On the other side, consumers are still impatient to get their hand on iPhone5. According to a research study from Strategy Analytics, Apple’s iPhone 5 topped in terms of sales during the last quarter, pushing flagship Samsung Galaxy S3 to the third position. It’s the first time when the iPhone 5 outsold Samsung Galaxy S3 in terms of shipments–thanks to its rich touchscreen, generous operators’ subsidies and extensive distribution strategy that fueled the device (iPhone 5) to reach at the top spot.
Till date, neither Apple nor Samsung has broken out quarterly sales of their any individual smartphone. More importantly, Samsung is reluctant to report even channel sales for some smartphone models. Despite, the research firm has spilled the beans related to the shipments of some flagship models during Q4 last year. Apple sold 27.4 million iPhone 5 smartphones during the last quarter, followed iPhone 4S with 17.4 million and Samsung Galaxy S3 with 15.4 million units. Interestingly, the iPhone 5 alone accounted for 13% of global smartphone share in terms of sales in Q4 2012, while Samsung Galaxy S3 succeeded to hold just 7% of shares.
It’s not Rationale To compare Sales of iPhone5 With Samsung Galaxy S3
However, it’s little unfair to compare the sales performance of iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 during the fourth-quarter of the last year. The reason is quite obvious that Apple Inc. launched iPhone 5 in late September last year, while Samsung Galaxy S3 was launched back in May in the same year. Of course, sales of Samsung Galaxy S3 reached to peak during Q3 of the last year. In the contrary, sales of iPhone 5 were well-deserved during Q4 2012. In addition, there were lots of rumors around about the launch of Samsung Galaxy S4. This might be one of the reasons why people preferred to wait for a short while for the launch of Galaxy S lineup’s next iteration.
Interestingly, even iPhone 4S outsold Samsung Galaxy S3 during last quarter. With 8% market share, the device (iPhone 4S) was second most popular smartphone in Q4 2012. However, in Q3 2012, Samsung Galaxy S3 surpassed iPhone 4S in terms of sales; 18 million units of Galaxy S3 were sold during the quarter, followed by 16.2 million units of iPhone 4S.
After subtle investigation, Apple’s iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S together accounted for 20% of overall smartphone market share in terms of sales. In other words, one in every five smartphones sold during the last quarter were either Apple’s iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S. Apparently, the impressive sales of these devices have given premium pricing to iPhone portfolios.
Furthermore, Apple’s premium pricing strategy is also matched with the premium materials used in the manufacture of its mobile handsets. Apple Inc. uses metal and glass materials for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S manufacturing, rather than plastics used in Galaxy S3. Undoubtedly, the company succeeded to hold two of the world’s most popular smartphones—iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S—during the last quarter. Despite, there’s a tough competition ahead for Apple; a sequence of smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy S4, Motorola X phone, HTC One, LG Optimus G pro and more are expected to debut in the market later this year.
