iPhone 5S remains best-selling smartphone in June

The iPhone 5s was hailed as the best-selling smartphone in May, one month after Samsung announced its Galaxy S5. With June now behind us (and July soon to disappear), is there any change in these stats?

The answer, in short, is “no change.”

Apple’s iPhone 5s continues to dominate sales last month, as it did in the month before it. Survey researcher Kantar Worldpanel Comtech’s analysis of the iPhone 5s/Galaxy S5 sales explains in large part why Samsung has now lowered its anticipated profit and revenue for Q2 2014 to $7.1 billion (down from 24% from the same quarter last year).

While it’s no mistake that the iPhone 5s is a popular smartphone, there’re some legitimate reasons why Samsung’s sales have dropped. First and foremost is the idea that Samsung’s facing global competition from companies producing more low-cost smartphones for consumers such as the Chinese rising star Xiaomi. Samsung also faced some stiff competition in European markets, and the UK saw the iPhone 5s rise to its most popular smartphone for the last two months. In cases where the iPhone 5s didn’t sell, some UK customers and international customers picked up the iPhone 5C.

Apart from low-cost competition smartphones, the Korean Won (currency in Samsung’s native country) appreciated over the dollar – leading to smaller numbers because of the currency fluctuation. Tablets were impacted due to the slow purchase cycle of consumers who choose not to upgrade their tablets as often as they upgrade smartphones.

While this may not sound like excellent news, Samsung’s got something to smile about. In addition to the Galaxy S5’s second place, Samsung saw its Galaxy Note 3 phablet (now 9 months old) in fourth place. The Galaxy S4, announced last Spring, came in third. Apple’s iPhone 5C rounded out the top five in fifth place, but Samsung saw three phones take the majority of the top five slots. Samsung saw two other smartphones in its collection that made it into the top ten: the Galaxy S4 Mini (eighth) and the Galaxy Grand 2 (tenth).