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The iPhone 13 and 13 Pro Max were the world's best-selling phones in Q1

By Joshua Swingle

Published: May 19, 2022, 11:29 AM

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iOS Apple

The iPhone 13 and 13 Pro Max were the world's best-selling phones in Q1

The iPhone 13 was the third best-selling smartphone of 2021 despite only being on sale for three months, so it’ll come as no surprise to hear that Apple’s device is off to an extremely strong start in 2022.

The iPhone 13 dominates the smartphone market

Analyst Francisco Jeronimo of IDC reports that Apple’s iPhone 13 was the best-selling smartphone worldwide in the quarter ending March 2022. That’s despite the serious supply issues that Apple faced during that time.

IDC chose not to reveal the total number of units sold. It didn’t disclose the phone’s individual market share either. But the iPhone 12 and iPhone 11 were the best-selling phones of 2021 and 2020 respectively, so the iPhone 13’s strong start was expected. As a reminder, the iPhone 13 retails at $799 in the United States and offers the latest A15 Bionic chipset coupled with a dual-camera setup and a 6.1-inch notched display. That’s in addition to iOS 15 straight out of the box.

Looking at the competition, it seems that the iPhone 13 was mostly facing a head-to-head battle with Apple’s other models. The 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro Max took second place in Q1 2022, suggesting people are more than willing to pay a small premium for access to a larger display.

The smaller 6.1-inch iPhone 13 Pro managed a very respectable fourth place, while the tiny 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini failed to reach the top 5. The latter further explains Apple’s rumored decision to kill off the mini-sized iPhone. Combined, the iPhone 13 family is understood to have accounted for 84% of total iPhone revenue in the first three months of 2022. The remaining revenue came from the iPhone SE (2022) and older iPhone 12 and iPhone 11 models.

Apple’s current results mean the iPhone 14 series could do even better

One thing’s clear from Apple’s latest results: the company seems to have found the perfect two smartphone sizes. And that could dramatically increase demand with the iPhone 14 debut in September.

Apple’s two 6.1-inch iPhone models made it into the top 5 last quarter. These devices are likely popular with customers coming from older 5.8-inch or 4.7-inch iPhones. There may even be some interest from those replacing their legacy 4-inch phones.

But perhaps more important is the fact that Apple’s 6.7-inch Pro model outsold the 6.1-inch version. This trend, which has been consistent since the iPhone 12 launch in late 2020, suggests that there’s generally more demand for bigger iPhones.

As such, the next-gen 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max could be an extremely lucrative model for Apple. It’ll offer everything that consumers love about Apple’s usual best-seller, but in a larger form factor that’s still a lot more affordable than the Pro lineup.

Only time will tell what the results of Apple’s next iPhone bet will look like, but come next year the best-selling smartphone may well be the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max and Apple could occupy four of the top 5 spots rather than three.

Samsung currently occupies the two remaining top spots

Circling back to the current top 5, it’s Samsung that manages to fill in the gaps, though it didn’t do so with the flagship Galaxy S22 series. Demand for those devices wasn’t strong enough to warrant a top spot, unfortunately. The brand instead occupied the positions with two budget devices: the entry-level Galaxy A12 took third place in the January-March quarter and the mid-range Galaxy A32 occupied fifth place.

Samsung is the current leader in the low-end smartphone segment and is likely to keep its crown in the coming quarters. Both the Galaxy A12 and Galaxy A32 have since been replaced with the newer Galaxy A13 and Galaxy A33, which further contribute to Samsung’s mission of offering 5G support at all price points.