Apple's iPhone Easily Named 'Best-Selling Tech Product of 2017'
The iPhone has been named the "best-selling tech product of 2017" by analyst Daniel Ives of GBH Insights (via USA Today).
Apple's smartphone achieved the same ranking in 2016, and Ives said that the company will sell a total of 223 million iPhones in 2017, increasing from 211 million sold in 2016.
The iPhone was followed by Samsung Galaxy S8 and Note 8 (33 million), Amazon Echo Dot (24 million), Apple Watch (20 million), and Nintendo Switch (15 million).
The rankings include all models of iPhone grouped together, explaining why the gap is so large between Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S8 and Note 8.
But all in all, Apple sold more iPhones total, although less than the peak year of 2015, when it moved 230 million units. (That was the year of the iPhone 6, a redesign that brought a bigger iPhone to consumers for the first time and enthralled the public.)
Ives thinks Apple will have an even bigger 2018, with a spring update to its compact SE iPhone and more new phones in the fall. Out of the billion-plus consumer base of the iPhone, "350 million of them will upgrade next year," says Ives.
In the fourth spot, Ives described Apple Watch as a product that's now "found its niche" in the wearables market, thanks to the LTE Series 3 update that makes it less reliant on the iPhone. The analyst also cited ongoing discounts for older models, improved battery life on the Series 3, and Apple's pivot away from marketing the Apple Watch as a fashion accessory to one mainly used for fitness and working out.
Earlier this week, data shared by mobile analytics firm Flurry described the iPhone and iPad as the most popular items gifted around the world for the holidays. Flurry looked at device activations from December 19 to December 25 and noted that 44 percent of new device activations were for Apple products, with the iPhone 7 leading the pack at 15.1 percent of Apple product activations. For the newer models, the iPhone X was at 14.7 percent while the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus sat at 8.1 and 8.7 percent, respectively.
Popular Stories
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you.
Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports.
In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3 and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B30, up from 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 firmware is 8B28, up from 8B21.
There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 are getting expanded support for Live Translation in the European Union in iOS...
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below.
Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products.
Here's what's supposedly coming:
An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already...
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found.
Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28.
The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker.
According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
Apple is working on a smart home hub that will rely heavily on the more capable version of Siri that's coming next year. We've heard quite a bit about the hub over the last two years, but a recent iOS 26 code leak provides additional insight into what we can expect and confirms rumored features.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Macworld claims to have access to an ...
