iPhone 7 was the most purchased phone internationally in the first half of 2017

Assessing smartphone market share is an interesting exercise. If you compare by brand, you will find that Samsung has shipped more smartphones than any other company in almost every quarter for the last few years. But if you break down it further you can see which models are popular, and how Android manufacturers can achieve strong sales by having some popular models, rather than a single very popular model.

According to market intelligence firm, IHS Markit, the iPhone 7 was the number one selling smartphone, followed by its bigger brother, the iPhone 7 Plus. Third place was the budget-end Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Plus (what a name!), Apple pops in again at number four with the iPhone 6s, and Samsung rounds off the last two reported positions with the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ at five and six. IHS Markit did point out that the market share for the number one smartphone each year for 2015, 2016, and 2017 (the non-plus iPhone), has shrunk from 10 percent to seven percent, and now five percent.

Samsung released the Galaxy S8 and S8+ roughly one month later this year than they did with the Galaxy S7 and larger Galaxy S7 Edge, and this appears to have impacted sales volumes. The Galaxy S7 Edge was positioned in fourth place in 2016, while its newer replacement the Galaxy S8+ is placed two steps lower.

While the rest of the rankings weren’t listed, IHS Markit says that the Top 10 was made up of five Samsung models, four Apple models, and one Oppo model. We speculate that the fourth Apple model was the iPhone SE, and the other Samsung models may have included the older Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, and possibly one of the A-series phones such as the Galaxy A5. The Oppo phone was potentially one of the mid-range models like the Oppo A57.

So depending on how you look at it, Samsung maintain their position as the largest smartphone manufacturer by shipments, and Apple maintains their position with the two most highly shipped models.