Number one, baby!
Assuming both sales scores are legit (or at least relatively close to the commercial reality), Apple has certainly started the year on the right foot from a competition standpoint, gaining a decent early advantage over Samsung that may or may not prove large enough to keep the silver medalist in that position at the end of Q1.
Otherwise put, iPhone demand is declining at a significantly faster pace than Galaxy sales, and Apple doesn’t have any brand-new models in stores to rely on for a swift and dramatic recovery.
iPhone 15 sales are especially sluggish in China and the US
We don’t have any regional numbers to highlight the seriousness of that situation, but worldwide, the iPhone 15 family has reportedly sold in close to 69 million copies during its first five months of availability, which is clearly a huge number yet less huge than what the iPhone 14 series garnered in a similar timeframe.
The iPhone 15‘s troubles come primarily from the overall “sluggish smartphone sales” stateside, where Apple is an absolute force to be reckoned with, and “intensified competition within China”, especially from Huawei, which is very much back from the dead and apparently the new leader of the world’s largest market by a “slight margin.”
