Canalys: the iPhone 8 Plus out-ships the iPhone 8 in the third quarter

Apple’s iPhone 8 Plus out-shipped the iPhone 8 in the third quarter (Q3) of 2017, according to Canalys. The research group says the iPhone 7 was the world’s best-shipping smartphone in the  quarter with 13 million units shipped. 

The iPhone 6s was a distant second, after an uptick that resulted in 7.9 million shipments. Samsung’s Galaxy J2 Prime was third, with 7.8 million shipped, while Oppo took fourth and fifth place, with its A57 and R11 shipping 7.8 million and 7.2 million units respectively. The iPhone 8, which launched in mid-September, didn’t make the top five, according to Canalys.

Apple shipped 46.7 million smartphones in Q3 2017. The new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus accounted for 11.8 million of these. This falls well short of its predecessor, the iPhone 7 line, which topped 14 million in its first quarter, according to Canalys. But while Apple shipped 5.4 million units of the iPhone 8, it shipped 6.3 million of the larger iPhone 8 Plus. This makes the iPhone 8 Plus the first iPhone Plus model to out-ship its smaller sibling in a single quarter.

“Shipments of older devices, such as the iPhone 6s and SE, saw an uptick in quarter three,” says Ben Stanton. “The iPhone 7 also shipped strongly after its price cut in September. Apple grew in the third quarter, but it was these older, cheaper models that propped up total iPhone shipments. Apple is clearly making a portfolio play here. With the launch of the iPhone X, it now has five tiers of iPhone and delivers iOS at more price bands than ever before. This is a new strategy for Apple. It is aggressively defending its market share, but it will not compromise its rigid margin structure to do so.”