Counterpoint Research has released its new report Global Handset Model Sales TrackerThat monitor the sales trend of the main smartphone models in the world.
As it was legitimate to expect, the ranking is led byApple iPhone 16who in the first quarter 2025 beat his competitors to win the coveted title of best -selling smartphone in the world. It is, moreover, a primacy of great historical importance: in fact, it marks the return of the basic variant of the Phone series to the first place, in the first quarter, after a two -year interval.
The influence of Apple is particularly evident in the top ten. As we see by the infographic shared by Counterpoint Research, in fact, Apple occupied five of the top ten models for the fifth consecutive quarter. At the same time, Samsung occupies four of the five places in the top-ten, one less than a year ago. The only intruder is therefore the Redmi 14c 4G, which occupies the eighth position.
iPhone 16: excellent sales in most of the world
Entering more in detail, let’s see how The iPhone 16 has obtained good performances in almost the whole world. The sales performances in Japan and the Middle East area – Africa (Mea) were excellent, with the Asian country that recorded the highest growth in the sales of the basic variants. The improvement of economic conditions and regulatory reviews on grants have in fact favored the price strategy for Apple, thus further strengthening its attraction on such an important market such as Japanese.
Behind the base variant of the iPhone 16, theiPhone 16 Pro Max and theiPhone 16 Pro They positioned themselves respectively in the second and third place. The Pro series had to deal with some difficulties of penetration on the Chinese market due to government subsidies that tend to encourage devices of less than 6,000 CNY (the equivalent of about 830 dollars), in addition to the strong competition in the premium segment in the country by OEM such as Huawei. Despite this, the Pro models have continued to represent about half of the total sales of Apple for the third consecutive quarter.
The debut of theiPhone 16e of Applethat the sixth place was ensured in the global top ten in March 2025, its first month complete with sales. Despite a higher price than the 2022, 16e could exceed its predecessor at the end of the first commercial year.
Samsung’s performances
AND Samsung? The Galaxy S25 Seventh place was secured during the first quarter 2025, decreasing compared to the fifth place of the S24 Ultra in the first quarter of a year ago. A change that seems to be mainly due to the shortest sales window for the Ultra S25 during the first quarter.
Also well the Galaxy A16 5Gwho positioned himself in fifth place in the first quarter 2025, climbing a position compared to the Galaxy A15 5G a year earlier. In particular, the model recorded a 17% growth on an annual basis, thanks to the increased availability in key markets such as North America, where it was launched in the first weeks of the year. North America was therefore the most important market for the model, with a share of a third of its global sales. Another important contribution came from the Asia Pacific market, from Latin America and the Middle East – Africa, where she continued to earn popularity.
Another important model was the Galaxy A06who climbed four positions in the top ten compared to his predecessor. Growth is part of a wider increase in the demand for low -end smartphones in all regions.
Redmi 14c, the only non -Apple and Samsung model in the standings
The Redmi 14c 4g of Xiaomi It was the only model outside of Apple and Samsung to enter the global top ten. His sales grew by 43% on an annual basis compared to the predecessor, with a decisive contribution by emerging markets and, above all, the Middle East – Africa and Latin America.
