In the third quarter of this year, the best-selling device in the global smartphone market was found to be Apple's iPhone 16.
Counterpoint Research on Dec. 8 analyzed and released the top 10 models by global smartphone sales in the third quarter. The iPhone 16 recorded a 4% share in the third quarter this year. The iPhone 16 kept its No. 1 spot for three consecutive quarters.
Apple and Samsung each placed five models in the top 10 best-selling device models in the third quarter.
No. 2 was the iPhone 16 Pro, No. 3 the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and No. 4 the budget model iPhone 16e. They were followed by Samsung Electronics Galaxy A16 5G (No. 5), Galaxy A06 (No. 6), Galaxy A36 (No. 7), Galaxy A56 (No. 8), and Galaxy A16 4G (No. 9), all part of the Galaxy A series. The Galaxy A36 and A56 gained popularity as they adopted Samsung's artificial intelligence (AI) features called "Awesome Intelligence."
The iPhone 17 Pro Max ranked No. 10. Counterpoint said the iPhone 17 Pro Max saw increased sales on the back of growing global smartphone replacement demand.
In the third quarter last year, Xiaomi of China placed the Redmi 13C 4G at No. 7 among the top 10 sales models, but this year no Xiaomi product made the top ranks.
The top 10 models from Apple and Samsung accounted for 20% of total global smartphone sales for the quarter.