Top 10 phones in August: Galaxy S4 sales drop but still leads the pack
Galaxy S4 Sales continue to slump but the long tail Galaxy range makes up for it
Samsung’s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4 was the bestselling smartphone in August according to Counterpoint Research’s monthly model tracker. But sales are falling short of expectations as the sell-through dipped to 5 million unit level during the month. After hitting its peak in June with more than 7 million units a month, sell-through continues to decline. However, Samsung was the only major vendor which registered monthly growth in the historically slow season of August. The long tail of Galaxy branded Android smartphones such as Galaxy S4 mini, Galaxy S duos, Galaxy Fame, Galaxy Trend and others together were able to offset the dip in Galaxy S4 sales.
Premium smartphone (above US$400 wholesale) category sales are showing signs of stagnating growth as most of the sales in the premium segment are coming from replacement sales from existing smartphone users. But the overall smartphone market is still growing at the rate of 40~50% a year with major growth thus coming from burgeoning smartphone sales in the sub US$200 price segments”
September month sales are very important to shape the holiday season demand trajectory, a decisive moment distinguishing which phones are going to be top-sellers. Galaxy S4 sales might – pick-up again with special holiday pricing though we expect the flagship model to sell 80% more than its predecessor the Galaxy S3 from launch till year end, instead of our previous view of 100% more.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 might also have a better trajectory than its predecessor as it still is a highly differentiated offering with maturing second generation S Note features and Galaxy Gear smart watch bundle making it stand out from the competition.
Among the other bestsellers were the Apple iPhone 5 and quite a few feature phones from Nokia such as the Asha 501, Asha 205 and Nokia 105.
Top 10 models sold Globally in August 2013
Rank Brand Model
- Samsung Galaxy S4 International version
- Apple iPhone 5-16GB
- Apple iPhone 5-32GB
- Nokia Asha 501
- Samsung Galaxy Note II
- Samsung Galaxy S III mini
- Samsung Galaxy S III
- Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini I9190
- Nokia Asha 205
- Nokia 105
Source: Monthly Market Pulse August 2013 http://bit.ly/1fEJdgm
Analyst Contacts:
Peter Richardson
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@MobilePeter
Neil Shah
+91 22 2537 4784
@neiltwitz
Tom Kang
+82 10 2874 8133
Counterpoint Research
+852 8191 4813
@CounterPointTR
Author
Tom Kang
Tom is an expert in the telecoms industry with 14 years of experience. He provides practical advice for the short term goals of clients as well as insights for long term vision. Previously he was a celebrated world renowned analyst at Strategy Analytics. He first introduced value share and profit share. He also created the Smartphone Strategies service and headed the research growing it to become the largest service in the company. Tom also worked for LG Electronics within the Mobile Communications Company in various roles.
