Apple's iPhones Were the Best-Selling Tech Product of 2017 (usatoday.com)

An anonymous reader quotes USA Today: Once again, the iPhone was the best-selling tech product of 2017, selling more units than the No. 2 through No. 5 products combined. According to Daniel Ives, an analyst with GBH Insights, who compiled the chart for USA TODAY, Apple will sell 223 million iPhones in 2017, up from 211 million phones the previous year... Apple took a risk in introducing three new iPhones for 2017...but all in all, Apple sold more iPhones total, although fewer than the peak year of 2015, when it moved 230 million units. (That was the year of the iPhone 6...)

The global market share for smartphones is dominated by Google's Android system, which owns 85%, compared to 15% for Apple's iOS, according to researcher IDC. But the iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand, having opened a huge gap compared to No. 2 Samsung's Galaxy phones at 33 million. However Samsung, which has a broader portfolio of phones, sells more overall. Indeed, in 2016, Samsung shipped over 320 million phones, most lower-priced phones sold outside the United States, like the J3, On8 and A9 lines.
Apple's strong performance through September earned CEO Tim Cook a $9.3 million bonus on top of his $3.06 million salary -- plus vesting of $89.2 million more in Apple stock. Here's the complete list of the five best-selling tech products of 2017:

• Apple iPhones: 223 million
• Samsung Galaxy S8 and Note 8 smartphones: 33 million
• Amazon Echo Dot connected speakers: 24 million
• Apple Watch: 20 million
• Nintendo Switch video game console: 15 million

Comments

So?

[p51d007]

Apple sold 223 million phones. Android has zillions of manufacturers, which eclipses anything Apple did. 85% of the smartphone market, is Android.

Re:So?

[jeremyp]

Android isn't an electronic device, it's an operating system that electronic devices use. When you are looking at which PC manufacturers sold the most computers, you don't lump all the ones that run Windows into one category and say Windows PCs win. Why would you do the same with Android?

It's not even as if those 85% of phones run the same operating system. Sure it's some version of Android that's been hacked about by the manufacturer and they're only using it because they get it for next to nothing off Google.None of these manufacturers are subscribing to the ideals of Open Source, they use Android because only Google has the financial resources to maintain an operating system to compete with iOS.

Also, you do not want Android to win. Android and iOS are only as good as they are because of the competition that the other provides. The day that Apple is forced out of the Smartphone market is the day that Android stops getting better.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Sales Figures...

[Zocalo]

Maybe they're working on partial data from the vendors, but those entirely arbitrary groupings of specific products, closely related products, and entire product ranges make this pretty a meaningless apples to oranges comparison. The figure of 223m is for all models of iPhone, e.g. every model of phone Apple makes (albeit unclear if they mean just the three models released in 2017 or older models too), yet the figure for Samsung is for one pair of related models out of many other ranges, most of which are part of the Galaxy line which they then go on to state is more popular than the iPhone, and the other three products on the list are specific models, albeit with some different bundle and style options.

You can't even say it's done that way to turn it into a pro-Apple fluff piece because there's no way that those 223m iPhones Apple shipped can't end up with them having the most popular individual product of 2017 (almost certainly the iPhone 8) when broken down to that level.