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Ahead of the iPhone 7 launch, the iPhone 6s is still the smartphone king

Published Sep 6th, 2016 4:25PM EDT

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In a few short hours, Apple will unveil the iPhone 7. There is a healthy amount of skepticism surrounding the new model, with most reports indicating that the iPhone 7 will be the least notable upgrade ever released.

But before you become too concerned for Apple, know that the iPhone 6s is the still most popular phone in the world by a pretty huge margin.

READ MORE: Apple just listed the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus on its website

This week, both Kantar Worldpanel and Strategy Analytics published their second quarter smartphone market data, but despite Apple suffering its first ever iPhone sales dip earlier this year, the ubiquitous mobile device still reigns supreme.

“The iPhone 6s remains the top-selling device in the market with an 11% share, something we expect to continue through the launch of the next iPhone, with price reductions incentivizing people to upgrade their current phones even if they might not feel a need for the ‘latest and greatest,'” says Kantar’s Lauren Guenveur.

In addition to the iPhone 6s leading the pack, Kantar says that the iOS platform as a whole saw a significant uptick year-on-year, while the iPhone SE managed to become the third best-selling phone in the US last quarter.

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics reported similar findings regarding the popularity of the iPhone 6s: “We estimate the Apple iPhone 6s model shipped 14.2 million units and accounted for 4 percent share of all smartphones shipped worldwide in Q2 2016. Apple’s iPhone 6s is currently the world’s most popular smartphone.”

According to the latest data from Strategy Analytics, Apple actually occupies both the first and second spot for global smartphone marketshare as of Q2, with the iPhone 6s capturing 4.2% and the iPhone 6 reeling in 2.5%.

The only question now: how many will upgrade?

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.