The iPhone XR was the best selling phone globally in 2019 accoridng to new research data from Omida (via 9to5Mac). The phone apparently sold 46.3 million units.
It’s notable that the iPhone 11, released late in the year in September of 2019, was second with 37.3 million, the high number highlighting the excellent quarter Apple had on the back of the iPhone 11 series launch. The iPhone 11 Pro Max was sixth on the list with the iPhone 11 Pro the least popular in ninth.
“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 Samsung Galaxy A10 was the best-selling Samsung phone with 30.3 million units sold, even though globally Samsung sells more phones than Apple. Samsung’s Galaxy A50 and A20 were fourth and fifth respectively, showing the company’s main bulk of sales is in its mid-range and budget handsets – very different to Apple’s business model.
Apple still sells the iPhone XR despite the release of the similar, but improved, iPhone 11 model.
According to the data, Samsung’s S10 phones, released in March 2019, didn’t enter the top ten, reflecting worse sales than the Galaxy S9 series, whose S9 and S9 Plus were the seventh and eighth bestselling phones globally in 2018.
The only phone in the top ten that isn’t an Apple or Samsung device is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 in eighth with 16.4 million units.
The report goes on to say 14.7 million 5G smartphones were sold in 2019, the most popular of which was the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G with 2.6 million units.
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Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.