Counterpoint Research:

According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Pulse program, the US market sold-through 51.2m smartphones during the holiday season quarter of 2017. Apple sell-through during this period was a record 22.39 million smartphones. Apple was able to grow their sell-through market share from 37% to 44%. This is the highest ever market share for Apple in its home market.

Commenting on Apple’s growth story here, Research Director Jeff Fieldhack stated, “Apple shipped a record 22 million iPhones for the first time ever in a quarter in USA and is note-able and impressive feat because the Q4 promotional season was not nearly as aggressive as previous years. In addition, upgrade rates are slightly lower year-over-year as smartphone subscribers are holding onto phones longer. Apple was able to grow their sell through 20% in a market that only grew 2% compared to last year. This means Apple has been successful to take share away from Samsung in the premium.”

Note that this article is referencing the 4th calendar quarter and not Apple’s 4th fiscal quarter (which ended September 30th).

During Q4 2017, all the three new iPhones were strong sellers—the three were the top three selling phones in the US market. However, since its launch on November 3rd, the iPhone X outsold the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus by a 2:1 margin . What this means is the super-premium segment (above $800) has grown from almost 0% in previous years to 25% share of the total smartphones sold in USA during Q4 2017, which speaks volumes for the potential of USA market and the US consumers’ buying power.”

It’ll be really interesting to compare these results to those one quarter from now. Will the iPhone X peel even further away from the iPhone 8/Plus, sales-wise?