Counterpoint: iPhone XR was the best selling phone globally for 2019, followed by the iPhone 11, with the Samsung Galaxy A50 coming in third
According to Counterpoint Research's Market Pulse, iPhone 11 raced to become the second-best selling model globally for 2019 despite it being launched in September.
Context & Ripple Effects
This ranking closes out a run that was already visible mid-year: per Counterpoint, the iPhone XR had been the world's top-selling model every quarter since Q4 2018 and alone drove over a quarter of Apple's sales by Q3 2019. The full-year list confirms it held the crown, while the iPhone 11 — on sale only from late September — climbed to second within a single quarter.
The more telling detail is who sits third: not a Galaxy S or Note flagship but the mid-range Galaxy A50, making Samsung's volume play the only non-iPhone in the top three. That two-tier picture — Apple owning the premium ranks, Samsung's A-series carrying Android volume — is the template the market has repeated since.
First-order effects
- Apple ends 2019 with both top-selling models globally, validating its strategy of keeping the previous-year flagship (XR) in market alongside the new one rather than cannibalizing it.
- Samsung's absence from the top two with any flagship underscores that its global unit leadership rests on the A-series mid-range line, which now competes directly against discounted prior-generation iPhones.
Second-order effects
- Rival Android vendors face a squeeze from both ends: Apple's discounted XR pulls premium-aspirational buyers down-market while Samsung's A50 anchors the budget tier, narrowing the space between.
- Carriers and retailers gain pricing leverage around the XR, whose proven sell-through makes it the default recommendation slot — reinforcing Apple's share even between launch cycles.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the bestseller lists consolidate structurally: by 2022 Apple held eight of the top ten spots led by the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro Max, and in 2025 the iPhone 16 topped the list with seven of ten slots to Apple and three to Samsung — a durable Apple-premium/Samsung-midrange duopoly at the model level.
- A ranking where only one non-Apple model cracks the top three pressures other Android makers toward either extreme cheapness or exit from the volume handset business, reshaping supplier and component demand toward fewer, larger customers.
The trend: Global smartphone demand is consolidating around Apple's premium models and Samsung's A-series mid-rangers, squeezing every other vendor out of the bestseller ranks year after year.