iPhone XR Tops Global Smartphone Sales in 2019, iPhone 11 Comes in Close Second: Counterpoint

It should really come as no surprise any more but a new report has pegged Apple and Samsung as the top two selling smartphone brands in 2019. Apple topped the charts thanks to the iPhone XR, with the iPhone 11 coming in a close second. Samsung took third place with its Galaxy A50 smartphone. Oppo managed to make a break in the top-10 list with the Oppo A5 coming in at fifth place. Unsurprisingly, Apple dominated in the US, taking the top five spots with its iPhone models. The iPhone XR was also the only phone to capture double-digit market share in sales, in any region.

Counterpoint Research has published a report, which shows the top 10 best selling phones of 2019 globally and another chart, which shows the market share for the top selling models by region. The iPhone XR (Review) was appointed the best selling smartphone globally, capturing three percent market share overall. What's surprising was that the iPhone 11 (Review), which launched only in September last year, managed to come in second place with a 2.1 percent market share. Samsung took second and third places with the Galaxy A50 (Review) and Galaxy A10 smartphones. These claims are similar to Omdia's recent survey, which also hailed the iPhone XR and the iPhone 11 as the top two best selling smartphones of 2019, followed by the Galaxy models.

Going by region, the Oppo A5s (Review) had the highest market share in APAC (excluding China), followed by the Galaxy A50 and iPhone XR. In China, it was the local brands which dominated, with Oppo taking the top two spots with the A5 and A9; followed by Vivo with its Y93 and Y93s and finally, the Huawei P30 in fifth place. Samsung's Galaxy A50 and Galaxy A10 were the top selling phones in Europe, South America (LATAM) and in the Middle East and Africa (MEA). In fact, in the latter region, Samsung captures all top five spots with its Galaxy phones. According to the report, Realme entered the top five list in rest of APAC, for the first time, with its C2 model.

Can Samsung Galaxy M31 beat the Redmi Note 8 Pro, Poco X2? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.