Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G and the iPhone have been the two most popular and most used smartphones throughout the world. Every year is different, and although Samsung generally manages to sell more than Apple, something rather interesting happened in 2019. We will go through the events and the sales figures and if Samsung or iPhone, in 2019, was more popular and won the battle. Before we get to discuss the events of 2019, we will also do a brief historical retrospective and see what happened during the past decade.
It's been going on for a decade
So, when we speak of Samsung or iPhone in 2019, or generally, we should specify that we are actually talking about the Samsung Galaxy and the iPhone because, unlike Apple, Samsung has more than one smartphone. In addition to the Galaxy which has impressive performance and powerful hardware, the company has also released a number of other cheaper smartphones. The sales figures often also include these other models, in addition to Samsung's flagship Galaxy.
The iPhone was released back in 2007, whereas the first Galaxy was released three years later. During the first two years, the sales figures weren't as high as expected, but soon the sales number per quarter exceeded 30 million and that hasn't changed.
The first version of the Galaxy looked a lot like the iPhone and that only added to the tension between the two companies. Two years after the first Samsung Galaxy was released, its sales figures reached iPhone's sales figures. In the upcoming years, Samsung regularly sold more than Apple, but the situation was remarkably different if we consider just the American or, rather, North American market. Here, Apple is far ahead, and often the number of iPhones sold is twice the number of Samsung Galaxy smartphones sold.
2019 was a very interesting year
The sales figures for 2019 are interesting, although at first, it didn't seem that there will be any changes. During the first three quarters of the year, Samsung sold a lot more items compared to Apple, in fact, about 185 million against Apple's 120 million. The final quarter was a completely different story. Apple sold almost 73 million iPhones, as opposed to Samsung which only managed to sell about 70 million.
It has been a while since Apple managed to sell more than Samsung and we are yet to see what 2020 will bring. Currently, the iPhone 11 is the latest iPhone which was released in 2019, whereas the latest Samsung flagship model is the Samsung Galaxy S20, which was released at the beginning of 2020. The matchup in the second half of 2019 was Samsung Galaxy S10 and iPhone 11.
The Galaxy has a 6.1” display, as opposed to the iPhone, which features a smaller screen – 5.8”. The Samsung Galaxy also has a better resolution and supports 550 pixels per inch, while the iPhone supports 458 pixels per inch. The S10 was slightly cheaper than the iPhone at the time when both phones were released. The Galaxy supports external storage, as opposed to the iPhone 11 which doesn't. All in all, Samsung sold more units in 2019, but Apple was more successful in the final quarter and was generally more successful in America.