Apple Trailed Samsung in Holiday Quarter With an Estimated 68.4M iPhones Shipped

Apple was the number two smartphone vendor in the world during the 2018 holiday quarter with an estimated 68.4 million iPhones shipped, according to new data shared today by IDC.

IDC's new iPhone shipment estimates come one day after Apple's Q1 2019 earnings call, which corresponds to the fourth calendar quarter of 2018. Apple no longer provides unit sales of ‌iPhone‌, iPad, and Mac, leaving it to analysts to guess just how many devices were sold.

smartphoneshipmentsidcq418
Samsung was the number one smartphone vendor during the quarter, according to IDC, with 70.4 million smartphones shipped for 18.7 percent market share.

Apple, as the number two vendor, held 18.2 percent market share, but saw an 11 percent decline in ‌iPhone‌ shipments. During the holiday quarter of 2017, Apple shipped 77.3 million smartphones, so if IDC's 68.4 million estimate is correct, Apple sold 8.9 million fewer iPhones.

Apple saw iPhone volumes drop 11.5% in 4Q18 marking one of the more challenging iPhone quarters in terms of growth, despite the three new models. Total iPhone volumes were down 3.2% for the full year, which is understandable considering its two largest markets (the United States and China) both experienced the worst year for smartphone performance ever. Apple is certainly not out of the game, but the likelihood of not having a 5G iPhone in 2019 means it will need to tell a strong iPhone and, more importantly, ecosystem story to succeed. If anyone can do it, it is Apple. But it certainly won't be easy when faced with all the other downward market pressures.

IDC's data suggests that Apple sold more devices than Huawei, with Huawei shipping 60.5 million smartphones during the quarter. Huawei and Apple have been fighting for the number two position, with Huawei surpassing Apple during the second calendar quarter of the year.

smartphonemarketshareidcq418
Huawei is the smartphone vendor that saw the most growth during the quarter, with shipments up 43.9 percent. Oppo and Xiaomi were the number four and five smartphone vendors, respectively, with 29.2 and 28.6 million smartphones shipped.

Overall, IDC says that 375.4 million smartphones were shipped during the quarter, down 4.9 percent year over year and marking the fifth consecutive quarter of decline.

"Globally the smartphone market is a mess right now," said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "Outside of a handful of high-growth markets like India, Indonesia, Korea, and Vietnam, we did not see a lot of positive activity in 2018. We believe several factors are at play here, including lengthening replacement cycles, increasing penetration levels in many large markets, political and economic uncertainty, and growing consumer frustration around continuously rising price points."

IDC is more generous with its ‌iPhone‌ shipment estimate than Strategy Analytics. Yesterday, Strategy Analytics said that Apple shipped an estimated 65.9 million smartphones for a 15 percent decline year-over-year. Canalys, meanwhile, is more optimistic and says that Apple shipped an estimated 71.1 million smartphones for a decline of just 7.3 percent year-over-year.

With Apple no longer offering a breakdown of unit sales of the ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, and Mac, analyst estimates from sources like IDC and Strategy Analytics won't be able to be confirmed.

Tag: IDC

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

iPhone Foldable Display Said to Feature iPad-Style 4:3 Aspect Ratio

Friday March 28, 2025 3:44 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming "iPhone Fold" will feature a foldable screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, according to a Chinese leaker who previously leaked the book-style device's display dimensions. The Weibo-based account Digital Chat Station claims that Apple will adopt a "roughly" 4:3 aspect ratio on the inner display in order to achieve consistency between the outer display, as well as to ensure parity...

Top Rated Comments

bladerunner2000 Avatar
81 months ago
When you make a phone without a headphone jack and then rip people off with ridiculous prices... this is bound to happen.

Congrats Apple, you're starting to sink.
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
magicschoolbus Avatar
81 months ago
People are bored with their iPhones.

iOS needs a facelift.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kingofwale Avatar
81 months ago
"I'm not number 1?? You know what? I won't even tell you how many I'm selling"
--Apple
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ghost31 Avatar
81 months ago
I’m ok with apple selling less. I want to see them sweat for awhile and hopefully some kinda innovation finally comes. Right now the headlines are “apple sold 11 million less iPhones this year than last year” and all the apple fans are sniffing their own farts and pretending like it doesn’t matter. And “apple is doomed right? Haha” keeps on going but it’s really like ok...

We are at a peak in smartphones and people are keeping them longer and price is a real issue. At what point does anyone start talking about apple having to step up their game? When they sell 20 million less? 30? They’re a highly profitable company but at the same time, it is important to notice trends and where things are going. And I really hope apple is reactive to this and not just sticking their heads in the sand all “everything’s fine ! People love price increases!”
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fermat-au Avatar
81 months ago
The second table in IDC report, that wasn't included in the MacRumors story, is actually more relevant. It show volume across the whole of 2018, not just Q4

Apple and Samsung were quite close in sales in 18Q4, but Samsung were significantly ahead of Apple and all other companies in overall 2018 shipments. Apple's Q4 is always much better than their Q1, Q2 and Q3, as Q4 is not only the holiday quarter but also the quarter the new iPhones are released. Samsung's phone sales are spread more evenly

Apple Q4: 18.2%
Apple 18: 14.9%
Samsung Q4: 18.7%
Samsung 18: 20.8%

Attachment Image
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rocketman Avatar
81 months ago
I would like to see net profit as a field in that table. :D

To respond to the whiners, because it is a BUSINESS and units sold is good for the ego, but profits received is the actual measure stockholders care about.

If you are whining and neither have an iPhone or iPad and have no APPL stock, why are you even posting? I ask.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)