Here’s why older models beat iPhone 8 last quarter

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iPhone 8 Wireless Charging
The iPhone 8 wasn't Apple's top-shipping smartphone last quarter.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The iPhone ranked as the world’s top shipping smart phone in the third quarter of 2017 — but the iPhone 8 didn’t even crack the top five.

Instead, older (and cheaper) iPhones dominated the list. That doesn’t mean iPhone 8 tanked, though. A variety of factors account for its relatively low numbers.

The world’s top handsets

A report from market research and analysis company Canalys claims that the iPhone 7 shipped 13 million units in the quarter, while the iPhone 6s managed a little over half of this with 7.9 million shipments. Samsung’s Galaxy J2 Prime was third, with 7.8 million shipped, while Oppo took fourth and fifth place, with its A57 and R11 shipping 7.8 million and 7.2 million units.

Overall worldwide shipments hit 375.9 million, representing a 5.9 percent increase year on year. Of these, Apple shipped 46.7 million iPhones over the three month period.

So why didn’t the iPhone 8 or 8 Plus make the top five smartphones list then? Well, for one thing it was available for just eight days of the quarter. In that regard, the fact that he iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus accounted for 11.8 million shipments is actually kind of a triumph.

Given that they were only available for a fraction of the three month cycle, it’s no surprise that they didn’t make it to the number one position.

Even more crucial is the fact that, when it comes to early adopters, most people were probably hanging on for the iPhone X. A similar phenomenon was seen with the shorter than usual queues outside the Apple Stores for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus launch.

This may also explain why the 11.8 million figure is substantially less than the 14 million that the previous year’s iPhone 7 shipped in its first quarter on the market.

Triumph of the iPhone 8 Plus

One interesting insight from Canalys is the fact that the iPhone 8 Plus reportedly shipped 6.3 million units in the quarter, compared to the smaller iPhone 8’s 5.4 million. This is the first time an iPhone Plus model has out shipped its smaller sibling in a single quarter. (Apple never confirms the exact ratio or “mix” for competitive reasons.)

“Shipments of older devices, such as the iPhone 6s and SE, saw an uptick in Q3,” said Ben Stanton, an analyst at Canalys. “The iPhone 7 also shipped strongly after its price cut in September. Apple grew in Q3, but it was these older, cheaper models that propped up total iPhone shipments. Apple is clearly making a portfolio play here. With the launch of the iPhone X, it now has five tiers of iPhone and delivers iOS at more price bands than ever before. This is a new strategy for Apple. It is aggressively defending its market share, but it will not compromise its rigid margin structure to do so.”

Have you bought a new iPhone (or other smartphone) in the last quarter? If so, which model did you opt for? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Canalys

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