Top of the tree: Apple wipes the floor with Samsung to be crowned UK’s most popular handset in 2015
The iPhone 6 is officially the bestselling handset of 2015, with the older iPhone 5s in second place – Apple dominates the top four spots in the chart
Samsung falls wide of the mark, with its flagship Galaxy S6 only in fifth place
But Samsung’s oversized Galaxy Note 4 has outsold the iPhone 6s Plus phablet, which doesn’t feature in the top 10 at all
The number one phone for Christmas is the new iPhone 6s.
The British love affair with Apple endured in 2015, with six iPhones featuring in a list of the top 10 bestselling mobile phones of the year, according to Uswitch.com, the price comparison and switching service.
The top 10 list is entirely dominated by handsets from Apple and Samsung, although the South Korean maker’s Galaxy S6 doesn’t appear until fifth place, with UK mobile fans preferring even the older iPhone 5s – Apple’s first device to boast a fingerprint scanner – to Samsung’s latest flagship model.
Outselling any other phone in the UK in 2015 is the 16GB Apple iPhone 6, with the pricier (yet more spacious) 64GB model in third place. Despite only being released in September, the iPhone 6s (16GB) was still one of the top five most popular handsets of 2015.
The popularity of the (now-discontinued) 8GB iPhone 5c has endured since the series launched back in September 2013, no doubt because it was the cheapest iPhone up for grabs throughout 2015. Despite being an OAP in tech terms, it still outsold Samsung’s aesthetically innovative S6 Edge.
However, Samsung has managed to outclass Apple in the phablet stakes, in both size and popularity. The oversized Galaxy Note 4 (5.7 inches) has outsold the iPhone 6s Plus (5.5 inches), which doesn’t feature in the top 10 at all. The Note remains a favourite with stylus lovers, tempting mobile fans with its appealing price tag, super-sized screen and powerful specs.
The table below shows this year’s bestselling smartphones:
Top ten handsets for 2015 (correct on 23rd December)
| # | Handset | Powered by | UK release date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apple iPhone 6 (16GB) | iOS | September 2014 | ||
| 2 | Apple iPhone 5s (16GB) | iOS | September 2013 | ||
| 3 | Apple iPhone 6 (64GB) | iOS | September 2014 | ||
| 4 | Apple iPhone 6s (16GB) | iOS | September 2015 | ||
| 5 | Samsung Galaxy S6 (32GB) | Android | April 2015 | ||
| 6 | Apple iPhone 5c (8GB) | iOS | April 2014 | ||
| 7 | Apple iPhone 6s (64GB) | iOS | September 2015 | ||
| 8 | Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (32GB) | Android | April 2015 | ||
| 9 | Samsung Galaxy Note 4 | Android | October 2014 | ||
| 10 | Samsung Galaxy S5 (16GB) | Android | April 2014 |
Source: Uswitch.com
Apple fever also dominated the Christmas bestseller list. The iPhone 6s (16GB) featured at the top of people’s Christmas lists this December, closely followed by its older siblings the iPhone 6 and 5s. Meanwhile, Samsung’s eye-catching S6 Edge (32GB) was the most popular Android handset for Christmas, beating the Samsung S6 by two places.
Top ten handsets for December 2015 (correct on 23rd December)
| # | Handset | Powered by | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | iPhone 6s (16GB) | iOS | ||
| 2 | iPhone 6 (16GB) | iOS | ||
| 3 | iPhone 5s (16GB) | iOS | ||
| 4 | iPhone 6s (64GB) | iOS | ||
| 5 | Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (32GB) | Android | ||
| 6 | IPhone 6 (64GB) | iOS | ||
| 7 | Samsung Galaxy S6 (32GB) | Android | ||
| 8 | Samsung Galaxy Note 4 | Android | ||
| 9 | Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (64GB) | Android | ||
| 10 | Samsung Galaxy S5 (16GB) | Android |
Source: Uswitch.com
Rob Kerr, mobiles expert at Uswitch.com, says: “Apple’s authority in the UK mobile market is unrivalled. It’s the only manufacturer that can still attract queues days ahead of its major launches. It even makes Samsung look like a perennial underachiever.
“Interestingly, Apple isn’t actually doing anything particularly groundbreaking. Mobile payment technology existed before Apple Pay, voice recognition before Siri and Force Touch before 3D Touch.
“So why do we like iPhones so much? The fatally attractive combination includes a sleek design, right down to the packaging, and an intuitive and evolving user experience, plus Apple’s colossal brand power, and an ecosystem that locks users in to its TV, music and payment systems. If you’re already an Apple convert, you’ll know it’s hard to escape once you start buying into the brand.
“As our bestseller list shows, Samsung is the only other mobile maker to have garnered some of that mass appeal, but it’s still always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Ranging the Note 5 in the UK could have pushed Samsung further up the bestseller charts, but it backed the wrong horse, believing demand would be tipped towards the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus.”
Find out how you could save over £1,000 a year with Uswitch.com here.
Notes to editors
Annual top 10 and Christmas (December) top 10 are based on provisional sales via Uswitch.com up to December 23rd 2015. Provisional sales figures also use an approval rate which estimates, and takes into account, cancelled sales.
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