Smartphone Stats: Full Year 2017 Top 10, OS Installed Base and Everything Else You Ever Wanted

It is time for the annual picture. Smartphone races. This blog is the only place where you get the full Top 10 market shares every quarter (for free). And the installed base of the smartphones. And the OS wars. With no registration. No ads. No spam. Just the facts... Plus as a bonus, my analysis as well...

Let us start with the big picture. And before I do that, I need to tell you that I have changed the way I count one of the players. If you are not a regular reader of this blog, you probably never heard of 'BBK' before. But if you follow smartphones, you probably have noticed the rapid rise of Vivo and Oppo out of China. Well, BBK is their parent and yes a giant Chinese electronics company that first started out making DVD players etc. Over the past few years they've moved quite aggressively into the smartphone races.

BBK is to smartphones what say General Motors is to cars. GM sells the popular Chevrolet and Pontiac and Cadillac brand cars (and used to also own the Opel brand in Germany, Vauxhall in Britain, Holden in Australia etc). Yet 'GM' or General Motors generally is not a consumer car brand (although GM does sell trucks and heavier vehicles by that brand). Similarly BBK doesn't use the BBK brand to sell phones. It sells the increasingly popular Vivo and Oppo mass market brands that are major brands througout Asia, and are starting to appear on other continents as well. And what would be the Cadillac brand of BBK? It is OnePlus, the third major phone brand of the Chinese corporation (which has others as well). So to be clear. In the past, I listed BBK brands separately (Vivo and Oppo were large enough to fit into the Top 10). But that is not fair, as I count Motorola smartphone sales into Lenovo numbers, and Palm and Blackberry sales into TCL numbers together with Alcatel and their other brands. And we count Nubia into ZTE, etc. So we really do need to handle BBK as a manufacturer and do the proper global market share with the two big BBK brands added together. But do not despair. I will ALSO now break out the brand-based Top 10, as a separate table. So you get (of course) the best info, via the CDB blog. Your favorite source of all mobile industry stats... Now to the big table. Who won the year? (That was no contest, it is the same brand that wins this race every year - and by a mile)

2017 FULL YEAR SMARTPHONE MANUFACTURER SALES STATISTICS

Rank . Manufacturer (Brands) . . . 2017 units . . Share . . 2016 units . . Share . . 2015 units . . Share

1 (1)  . Samsung (Galaxy) . . . . . . . 317.2 M . . . . 21.1% . . 308.9 M . . . 20.8% . . .322.0 M . . . 22.4%
2 (3) . . BBK (Vivo Oppo OnePlus). 225.0 M . . . . 14.9% . . 174.0 M . . . 11.8% . . . . 85.0 M . . . . 5.7% 
3 (2)  . Apple (iPhone) . . . . . . . . . . 215.8 M . . . . 14.3% . . 215.4 M . . . 14.6% . . . 231.4 M . . . 16.1%
4 (4)  . Huawei (Honor) . . . . . . . . . 153.0 M . . . . 10.2% . . 139.0 M . . . . 9.4% . . . 108.0 M . . . . 7.5%
5 (7)  . Xiaomi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92.5 M . . . . . 6.1%. . . 54.3 M . . . . .3.7%. . . . 71.0 M . . .  . 4.9% 
6 (5)  . ZTE (Nubia)  . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.8 M . . . . . 4.0% . . . 57.0 M . . . . 3.8%  . . . 57.2 M . . . . 4.0%
7 (6)  . LG  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.0 M . . . . . 3.7% . . . 55.1 M . . . . 3.7% . . . . 59.7 M . . . . 4.2%
8 (8)  . Lenovo (Motorola)  . . . . . . . 48.9 M . . . . . 3.2% . . . 53.1 M . . . . 3.6% . . . . 76.3 M . . . . 5.3%
9 (-) . . Gionee  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39.0 M . . . . . 2.6% . . . - - -  . . . . . . - - -  . . . . . - - -  . . . . . . - - -  
10 (9) . TCL (Alcatel, Blackberry..) . 24.7 M . . . . . 1.6% . . . 38.0 M . . . . 2.6%. . . . 43.5 M . . . . 3.0%
Other  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285.6 M . . . . 19.0%
TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,505.5 M . . . . . . . . . . . 1,480.9 M . . . . . . . . . 1,437.3 M
Source: TomiAhonen Consulting 27 Feb 2018
This data may be freely used and repeated


Congrats Samsung. So for the actual global manufacturers, the big change is that Apple falls from number 2 slot last year (a position it has held since year 2012 after Nokia fell and Samsung jumped past Apple to take the top slot) to number 3 for year 2017. Note that Apple is on a downward trend from a peak of 20% global market share 6 years ago, to the last three years of 16%, 15% and now 14%. I expect Apple to drop to 13% by the end of this year, 2018. Meanwhile BBK the new number two? They have had a rocketship ride to number 2 and only breached the Top 10 three years ago. They were ranked third at the end of 2016 (with the revised accounting, by which their separate brands Vivo, Oppo and OnePlus are added together, as I have done for the above table). But look out Apple! Lurking in the wings is manufacturer brand number 4. Huawei! The Chinese giant is steadily growing, and last 3 years has gone from 8% to 9% to 10%. This year we will likely see a single quarter where Huawei outsells Apple, likely one of the summer quarters. And next year (2019) we'll see the fight for 12% market share, will Apple hold that third ranking or will Huawei snatch it? The trend says Apple will lose its share by 2020 the latest and fall to fourth rank among smartphone manufacturing companies globally.

By the way, for those who 'hate Apple' (and please don't count me into that group..). If you want to see the glass really really less than half full... Apple sales were flat in a year that was flat. Out of the Top 5, all other 4 manufacturers GREW their sales - Samsung by 3%, BBK by 29%, Huawei by 10% and Xiaomi by 70%. Don't fall into the silly trap to think, that Apple is somehow 'doing fine'. It is LOSING the battle. Market share down AGAIN and now the reality is starting to come home to various developers, especially in the Emerging World, that actually, all you need is Android. This is EXACTLY the same disaster that hit the Mac world back way before Apple went close to bankruptcy. The believers were finally forced to face reality, that even as the Mac was far superior - as a user interface - to the early Windows - the Windows personal computers were 'good enough' and most users wanted the major platform. And then the developers stopped supporting the tiny platform. The Mac OS never had 10% market share. iOS touched twice that, but is headed towards similar levels to ten percent. Currently at 14% and still declining. Now, if Apple 'wanted to' - it COULD reverse this decline. But will they do that, or will they just continue to milk the rich users, until the users get fed up with paying the iTax? Who knows. Currently Apple is the richest company in the world. It won't remain that if it continues to abuse its customers. But still today, iPhone loyalty and customer satisfaction is incredjbly strong. Apple has a long time to figure out what it wants. Yet, as I've said for years, the mistake of abandoning the future will come back to haunt Apple. Now most sane people see that iOS is a niche market, and only Android is a mass market. I told you so ten years ago...

As to the industry, growth is down to snail's pace now. The global market for smartphones grew only by 1.8% last year vs 2016. The earlier part of the year showed better growth but the final quarter had a significant slowing down, all three of the major analyst houses that reported Q4 numbers had the quarter down vs the year before. As to the total annual sales, the three houses (Gartner, IDC and Strategy Analytics) don't quite agree. One thinks annual sales declined while tow think they grew. I use their numbers for the average of total market size, as always. Then I use my own sources and public sources to allocate the market shares on a 'best fit' basis. Where companies are brave enough to give a true number (like well, it seems we're down to Apple and Huawei) we use those. Else I start from analyst reports and then use my best judgment for what math works best. Well. That is the manufacturer 'race'. Let's do the new 'brand race' table here as well, where we separate out the various brands like Vivo, Oppo for BBK and Motorola out of Lenovo, etc..:


 

2017 FULL YEAR SMARTPHONE BRAND SALES STATISTICS

Rank . Brand . . . . 2017 units . . Share . . 2016 units . . Share . . 2015 units . . Share

1 (1)  . Samsung  . . 317.2 M . . . . 21.1% . . 308.9 M . . . 20.8% . . .322.0 M . . . 22.4% 
2 (2)  . Apple  . . . . . 215.4 M . . . . 14.3% . . 215.4 M . . . 14.6% . . 231.4 M . . . 16.1%
3 (3)  . Huawei . . . . 153.0 M . . . . 10.2% . . 139.0 M . . . . 9.4% . . . 108.0 M . . . . 7.5%
4 (4)  . Oppo . . . . . . 116.7 M . . . . 7.7% . . . . 91.0 M . . . . 6.1%  . . . 50.0 M . . . . 3.5% 
5 (5)  . Vivo . . . . . . . . 96.3 M . . . . 6.4% . . . . 73.0 M . . . . 4.9% . . . . - - - . . . . . . - - -
6 (8)  . Xiaomi . . . . . . 92.5 M . . . . 6.1%. . . . 54.3 M . . . . .3.7%. . . . 71.0 M . . . . 4.9% 
7 (6)  . ZTE * . . . . . .  54.7 M . . . . 3.6% . . . . 57.0 M . . . . 3.8%  . . . 57.2 M . . . . 4.0%
8 (7)  . LG  . . . . . . . . 55.0 M . . . . .3.7% . . . . 55.1 M . . . . 3.7% . . . 59.7 M . . . . 4.2%
9 (9)  . Lenovo ** . . . 39.6 M . . . . 2.6% . . . . 53.1 M . . . . 3.6% . . . . 76.3 M . . . . 5.3%
10 (-) . Gionee . . . . . 39.0 M . . . . . 2.6% . . . - - -  . . . . . . - - -  . . . . . - - -  . . . . . . - - - 
Other . . . . . . . . . . . 326.1 M . . . . 27.6%
TOTAL . . . . . . . . .1,505.5 M . . . . . . . . . 1,480.9 M . . . . . . . . .1,437.3 M
 * ZTE without Nubia brand; ** Lenovo without Motorola brand
Source: TomiAhonen Consulting 27 Feb 2018
This data may be freely used and repeated

So in the brand wars, Samsung safely number 1, holding market share even at 21% vs last year same. Apple slowly fading, now down to 14% again one point down vs the previous year. The Top 5 stays the same as the year before. Xiaomi doing a second run at the Top 5, just misses it. Gionee is the new brand that kicks out Alcatel/TCL from last year.

BTW how good was my guidance? I told you in November what the Top 5 will look like for the full year. Three months ago I said that the Top 5 will be Samsung 21%, Apple 14%, Huawei 10%, Oppo 8% and Vivo 6% and that Xiaomi would be 6th. How did it turn out? EXACTLY that. Sammy 21, iPhone 14, Honor 10, Oppo and Vivo 8 and 6. And Xiaomi was left to 6th ranking.. Yeah.. Perhaps I do know a bit about this industry...


OS WARS

So what about the operating systems? That war was won years ago by Android. We know that Apple sold 14.3% of all the smartphones in 2017. That is the OS market share for iOS. Android is nearly the rest. There is less than 0.5% of 'other' OS platforms which nearly all have died. So Android has.. about 85.4%. So Android sells 6 times as many smartphones than Apple. This is just the smartphone new sales (bearing in mind, that Apple share is contiuously declining and Android continuously growing) but there also are 'non smartphone' devices that you should add, to get the full reach of a platform. For Android we have tablets, smart watches, TV sets etc. For iOS it is the iPads and Apple Watches and whatnot. But this blog isn't about all tech platforms, I focus on where the most relevant tech is - the only universal gadget on the planet - mobile phones - and their evolution (= smartphones) and the various tech we do with them from voice calls and messaging to the cameraphone to the mobile internet (and haha, 'apps' which is only games if you want to make money) to the future of such things as mobile money and Augmented Reality etc. For mobile phones, 79% of all phones sold in year 2017 were smartphones. I have revised my estimates of when the last dumbphones will be sold, and now look at year 2021 as the target year, when 'all' ie by Q4 of that year, more than 99% of all new phones sold would be smartphones. From that year, it will still be a couple of years further, until the installed base reaches 99% smartphones (because older phones remain in use). Which brings us conveniently to that topic of 'installed base'... how is that installed base of smartphones doing? Lets take another table


SMARTPHONE INSTALLED BASE AT END OF 2017 BY OPERATING SYSTEM

Rank . . OS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2017 units . . share . 2016 units . . share . . 2015 units . . share
1 (1) . .  Android  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,696 M . . . . 81% . . 2,560 M . . . . . 80% . . 2,079 M . . . . . 79%
a . . . . . . Pure Android/Play . . . ..  1,806 M . . . . 54%
b . . . . . . Forked Android/AOSP . . . 890 M . . . . 27%
2 (2) . .  iOS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612 M . . . . 19%  . . . 602 M . . . . . 19% . . . . 505 M . . . . . 19%
Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 M . . . . . 0% . . . . . 31 M . . . . . . 1% . . . . 56 M . . . . . . . 2%
TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,316 M . . . . . . . . . . . 3,193 M  . . . . . . . . . . 2,640 M
Source: TomiAhonen Consulting 27 Feb 2018
This data may be freely used and repeated


So the smartphone installed base is at 3.3 Billion devices globally. Four out of five smartphones globally now run on Android, one in five runs on iOS. Out of the app store reach, pure Android OS that can access Play Store now number 1.8 Billion devices which is 3 times the reach of iPhones that can access Apple's App Store. Out of all Android compatible devices, one third are forked AOSP devices, two thirds are 'pure' Android. Again with these numbers, remember these are only the smartphone reach. Tablets and other devices are excluded from both sides. Yes, once again only the CDB blog gives you the installed base race, not just the new sales. This is the relevant table obviously if you're any kind of developer.


Q4 NUMBERS

And last but not least, here is the final calendar quarter of the year, Q4 numbers. New sales. By Manufacturer.

BIGGEST SMARTPHONE MANUFACTURERS BY UNIT SALES IN Q4 2017

Rank . . . Manufacturer . Units . . . Market Share . Was Q3 2017 
1 (3) . . . Apple  . . . . . . . 77.3 M . . 19.1% . . . . . . . ( 12.2% ) 
2 (1) . . . Samsung . . . .  74.2 M . . 18.4% . . . . . . . ( 21.8% ) 
3 (2) . . . BBK *  . . . . . . . 56.7 M . . 14.0% . . . . . . . ( 16.4% )
4 (4) . . . Huawei  . . . . . . 41.6 M . . 10.3% . . . . . . . ( 10.2% ) 
5 (5) . . . Xiaomi  . . . . . .  28.0 M . . . 6.9% . . . . . . . (  7.3% ) 
6 (6) . . . ZTE ** . . . . . . . 16.6 M . . . 4.1% . . . . . . . (   4.3% )
7 (7) . . . LG  . . . . . . . .  . 13.7 M . . . 3.6% . . . . . . . (   3.6% ) 
8 (8) . . . Lenovo *** . . . . 12.5 M . . . 3.1% . . . . . . . (   3.3% )
9 (9) . . . Gionee . . . . . . .10.1 M . . . 2.5% . . . . . . .  (   2.6% )
10 (-) . . Coolpad . . . . . . . 5.4 M . . . 1.3% . . . . . . .  (   - - -  )
Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67.7 M
TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403.8 M

 * BBK includes Oppo, Vivo, Oneplus; ** ZTE includes Nubia; *** Lenovo includes Motorola
Source: TomiAhonen Consulting 27 Feb 2018
This data may be freely used and repeated

So that is the race in the latest quarter and once again the CDB blog is the only source that gives you a current Top 10. What is worth mentioning? Remember the iPhone annual sales pattern. There is no sudden surge by Apple. Samsung is SAFELY the largest smartphone maker (Annually) but for every year, the Christmas sales cycle produces the best quarter for Apple. Their share now declines in the next 3 quarters as it has done every year. I'm now adding Vivo, Oppo and the other BBK brands into the BBK manufacturer ranking. That brings Coolpad back into the Top 10. Note the sales level that gets you into the Top 10. It takes about 5.5 million smartphone sales. Our old pal Sony are at 4.0 million. TCL/Alcatel/Blackberry/Palm etc is at 4.2 million. And ahead of both... is the rapidly returning Nokia, via HMD, which is at roughly 4.4 million units by my estimate. They are going to make a run for a Top 10 position this year, and could breach the Top 10 ranking as early as by late summer data and hopefully by Christmas Quarter at least.

PS thanks to reader Gustavo Vera correcting me on the current status of the (ex) GM car brands... and Per "wertigon" Ekström for noticing the Q4 ranking error (numbers were correct but ranking order was wrong). I always appreciate the help of our readers.   :-)

Comments

[Abdul Muis]

Tomi,

Nokia just introduce $85 nokia 1 android go device. This will accelerate Nokia grows in 2018

[Gustavo Vera]

Interesting and very comprehensive article, thanks.
Just being fussy,Opel and Vauxall are PSA brands now, not GM.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Abdul

Yeah, also the Nokia 8 Sirocco is a 'proper' flagship that will help at the top end, to drive the appeal that even for cool people who want high tech, yes, Nokia is not your grandpa's mobile phone brand haha. Also with Sirocco the company is starting to move beyond 'just numbers' as a branding strategy (smart move).

But the big news is, as you said, the 85 Euro = 99 dollar price point for a Nokia branded Android smartphone. Nokia 1 will be possibly their best seller this year... very good strategy now to expand both at the bottom end and top end of their range. This year starts well for HMD. (I'll be doing my full year estimate for HMD Nokia smartphones a bit later)

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Gustavo

haha wow yeah. Shows how little I care about GM brands. Gosh. Sorry about that. Thanks! I mentioned you after correcting the story

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[przemo_li]

According to company behind KaiOS "To day, more than 30 million devices in the U.S., Canada, and India are currently powered by KaiOS."

While installed base show only 8 milion devices. What's the cause for a difference?

[Jim Glue]

14.6% down to 14.3% --- a .3% drop...while ASP rose and the top iPhone only available for the last two months of the final quarter. Not bad. Samsung sure as hell isn't doing anything close the the business Apple is in the phones Samsung wants most to sell. Samsung's sales of cheap Android phones are masking the devastation as Apple continues to lay waste to Android's premium market segment.

Mac/Windows and iPhone/Android share some things in common with some VERY different aspects. Developers never abandoned the Mac. The Mac never had anything like the developer base of Dos/Windows. Never. Not even close. When Windows eventually got good enough, some of the Mac exclusive apps came out with Windows versions...but they didn't stop making their Mac apps and for the longest time had the Mac version as the priority.

And that's IN the environment where the money to be made was far and away on Windows. The Mac apps (PageMaker, Photoshop) that were carrying the Mac were on the Mac because at the time, that's the only place they COULD exist.

The app story on iOS/Android has never resembled that Mac/Windows domain. Never. Not even close. iOS has dominated Android on apps and particularly revenue to be made since the beginning. The gap is widening, not closing even though Android has had a 4x install base advantage for years now.

Believing the third world Android apps are going to lead a resurgence of Android to the top developer supported and money making platform is like believing Spain and Greece are going to rise up and lead the world economically.

Apple's power is such that they could put out a $300 more expensive phone and NOT lose sales volume. With just 2 months out of the final qtr Apple's iPhone X sales rose the ASP of all iPhones $100.

Apple is going down the price market and will continue. Android has zero protection whatsoever. Meanwhile, no matter how many companies TRY to take on the iPhone head on...they are getting worse at it, not better.

Really happy to see HMD/Foxconn rising the Nokia brand from the grave. I don't think they are competitive at all with their "flagships" and bet the sales are dismal. But they have a solid line up and I do believe they could climb back into the top 10...maybe even the top 5. Maybe pass Apple in units sold.

We've already seen Apple's response to a maturing market. Broaden it's portfolio and move both up and down the price stack. And Apple has been able to grow it's ASP and maintain sales....surpassing all of Android in revenue, a new milestone.

What will the various Android manufacturer's due not that the entire market has flattened or begins to contract. 2018 might be a fantastic price war that will push a couple more out of the business and consolidation of other players. Maybe 2019

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi przemo

You know better than that. KaiOS is a featurephone OS. It is counted among the featurephone business like other featurephone OS platforms (like Nokia's Asha)

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[BabelHuber]

@Jim Glue: "Samsung's sales of cheap Android phones are masking the devastation as Apple continues to lay waste to Android's premium market segment."

Do you have a source for this? I'm genuinely interested. And I'm not talking about ASP, but a statistic with market segments, regions etc.

Falling ASPs don't need to be a bad sign after all. When BMW introduced the 1 series, the Mini and the 2 series active tourer, their ASP also went down. But no sane person recommends to BMW to go back to the 3, 5, 6 and 7 series to raise the ASP.

[Teemu]

Richard Yu from Huawei has said in an interview that in the future the amount of phone manufacturers will drop since in the long term 10% market share is needed for break-even and 15% for being profitable.
Apple is so doomed.

[Per "wertigon" Ekström]

@Tomi:

Something is off with your Q4 numbers, you list Apple as #2 with more units than Samsung... :)

Also, your total seems to be off, as well - or are older numbers outdated?

I get:

Q1 - 350.4M
Q2 - 356.1M
Q3 - 383.1M
Q4 - 403.8M

Total: 1493.4M

Either Q4 should be 415.9M to reach 1505.5M or something else doesn't add up.

Thank you for your services, as always. It's really fascinating watching Apples own hubris destroy themselves from the inside. Of course, Apple has the cash reserves to stick around for atleast 40 years if not more. So we will see this corpse walk a long way yet... :)

[ピコ太郎]

Samsung becoming more like Apple?

http://www.theinvestor.co.kr/view.php?ud=20180227000732
[MWC 2018] Samsung to shift focus after Galaxy S9 series

[THE INVESTOR] BARCELONA, Spain -- Samsung Electronics announced a strategic shift in focus at the Mobile World Congress currently underway in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 26 (local time), saying it aims to be more committed to developing new meaningful products, rather than being the first in everything.

Speaking at a press conference with Korean reporters after the Galaxy S9 Unpacked event, Koh Dong-jin, head of Samsung Electronics’ mobile business, noted that the tech giant had so far been obsessed with being the first to roll out new technology, but that will change now.

“We developed mobile phones earlier than Chinese firms, and we were obsessed with being the world’s first and industry’s first, rather than thinking about how this innovation could be meaningful to consumers,” Koh said. “Being the first is no longer important today, and our strategy is to launch something that consumers believe is meaningful and valuable at the right time.”

The CEO was responding to questions on the company’s roadmap for hardware innovation amid comparison with Samsung’s Chinese rivals in the fields of in-display fingerprint sensors and foldable displays. Koh confirmed that Samsung would launch phones with such technologies when it is fully ready.

[Abdul Muis]

@Tomi

The Nokia 1 will be 75 Euro = US$85.
(Not 85 Euro = 99 USD)

[Abdul Muis]

@Tomi

The Q4 2017 number and rank doesn't match
You list apple sell more than Samsung, but rank it number 2.

[ChrisB]

Accordig to heise (https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Nokia-8-Sirocco-Co-Vom-Einsteiger-Smartphone-bis-zum-Flaggschiff-HMD-zeigt-vier-neue-Nokias-3978003.html via Google translate), HMD sold 70 million phones in 2017, most of which were feature phones.

That may sound irrelevant when it comes to the smartphone bloodbath, but to me it looks like a reasonable strategy, because, for the time being, the safe revenue stream is feature phones, and even here HMD/Nokia offers attractive and innovative phones. (Personally, I'd like to see an updated successor to the 515, which is the perfect second phone.)

It remains to be seen whether HMD can use its advantage in feature phones to re-conquer the smartphone market, but I'm fairly optimistic.

[Abdul Muis]

@ChrisB

Engadget running a story about they want the all new nokia communicator. Which I rrally hope nokia will bring back

https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/27/the-world-is-finally-ready-for-the-nokia-communicator/

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Per

Thanks! Gosh I missed that. I was thinking of the bottom of the chart and combining Vivo & Oppo, forgot to put Apple to the top where it belongs in Q4. Thanks! Corrected it & mentioned you also in the actual article

Now as to annual stats - the annual number is not addition of our quarterly numbers (I wish it could be) but the analyst houses always tend to revise their numbers upwards, and their full year number is not the same as adding up their four quarterly numbers (their annual number is larger). I am using also for our annual number the average of the four analyst houses which gives us the 1,505.5 M = 1.51B number. The mathematical product of the four quarters is only 1,493 M as you point out.

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Abdul

Yeah! (Engadget). That is also what I want haha... please yes, HMD yes, do the remake of the Communicator. Use the E7 form factor (modernized, even larger screen) and the very 'ethos of Communicator' as the ultimate smartphone. And don't worry about the cost. You can safely plan for $1,199 price tag to ensure the few you sell are profitable. This will be the tech showcase to steal all the spotlights, telling others - try THIS.

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[denMike]

Well, there also seems to be something off with the Brand Sales table:

7 (6) . ZTE * 54.7M 3.6%
8 (7) . LG 55.0M 3.7%

?

[Jim Glue]

Hi BabelHuber,

The premium segment is reported on from time to time from groups like Canalysis. I think ASP's and Unit sales are relevant together. They help debug the ridiculous notion that Apple is hurting despite unit market share.

As for Samsung, since their numbers grow while their premium sales shrink...that tells you they are selling more of the cheap stuff...and you'll see it in their ASP.

ASP is a point for analysis. It doesn't tell you everything, but it does tell you some things. If Apple were in trouble, you'd see their ASP fall. "In trouble" would mean "can't sell as many iphones as they want/need to". If Apple were lowering their prices (if not the retail price, at least through BOGO offers and the like)...in order to maintain sales...you'd see their ASP fall. Seeing their ASP's rise as their sales slightly grow or remain flat -- tells you that Apple retains tremendous pricing power.

So many here keep predicting doom for Apple precisely because Apple's ASP are so much higher than the market. If Apple wasn't strong, you'd see their ASP fall, not go up. That this situation has been running for about 4 years now...it's not some quarterly anomaly.

Now, Apple's ASP's going down due to their putting out a cheaper iPhone...wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. And one would expect some pull back in the ASP since the highest mix of the most expensive iPhones are always Christmas quarter with Apple's annual release.

Meanwhile, Android phones have no pricing power whatsoever. Way too many companies selling the exact same thing.

[Jim Glue]

Hi Per. You wrote "It's really fascinating watching Apples own hubris destroy themselves from the inside. Of course, Apple has the cash reserves to stick around for atleast 40 years if not more. So we will see this corpse walk a long way yet... :)"

What is fascinating to me is how nothing can defer you from your Apple is doomed perspective.

Apple just posted their best financial quarter EVER. Most revenue, most profit. Unit sales of iPhone up when adjusted for the extra week from last year. But even if you cling to the slightly down version....that's slightly down with a jump in ASP of $100.

When you put out a new higher price tier...you are supposed to be able to sell some. But APPLE raised the price by $300 and it's the top selling iPhone model every week (at least until Apple's investor meeting when Tim Cook made the statement).

Apple's installed base continues to grow even as it's unit market share has fallen. That's because Apple STILL retains 95% loyalty among iPhone customers. And whether the "Super Cycle" ever appears...Apple has a HUGE base of presold phones. It's just a matter of how long people will hold on to their current iPhone. There is zero indication whatsoever that people are switching from iPhone to Android more than the fringe margin that has always existed and for the last few years has remained in Apple's favor (more switchers from Android).

Yes, Apple has plenty of money. Apple is still INCREASING the amount of money it is making.

This is the description of a company doing very well.