While there was some concern about the staggered release schedule for the 2018 iPhone models, it doesn’t appear to have had much of an impact on sales. According to new data from Kantar Worldpanel, the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X were the top three best-selling in the US for the month of November 2017 — in that order.
Apple’s market share actually fell in the US in November, likely as a result of the unique release schedule, but Apple still managed to come out on top in terms of phone sales. To put these numbers into perspective, the Galaxy S8 — Samsung’s biggest smartphone of 2017 — clocked in as the sixth best-selling phone that month.
All in all, Kantar’s data shows a solid, if unimpressive, launch month for the iPhone X in the US. But where Apple truly shined was overseas, as the iPhone X managed to claim the top spot in Japan, urban China and Great Britain.
iOS share fell slightly in Europe’s five biggest markets, but Apple achieved its highest market share in more than three years in Great Britain, climbing to 49.4% in November, retaking Samsung’s spot. Plus, with a 14.4% market share in Great Britain, 18.2% share in Japan and 6% share in urban China, the iPhone X became the best-selling iPhone model in three massive regions, despite its eye-popping price tag. That’s a good sign for 2018.
“Unlike in Europe and the US,” says Kantar’s Dominic Sunnebo, “where the vast majority of new early iPhone X sales came from existing Apple smartphone owners, in urban China there are significant numbers of Huawei, Xiaomi and Samsung customers switching to the new iPhone models, which they deem a cut above the rest.”
