Reports by Counterpoint Research and Omdia clearly show that Samsung and Huawei are beating Apple in the smartphone game, but that has not stopped press reports focusing on one aspect of the report which is positive for Jobs’ Mob.

Headlines read that Apple produced the two top selling phone models in the world last year, the iPhone XR and iPhone 11.

“The iPhone 11’s second place position was particularly impressive, given the phone was only on sale for just over three months in 2019”, one rag breathlessly reported.

What they failed to tell you was that there were large disparities regionally, with a Samsung phone winning Europe, and an Oppo holding the top spot in China.

Apple held half the North American market, however Samsung cleaned its clock in Europe with its mid-range A-series devices taking the lead. The best-selling phone in Europe was the Galaxy A50, and phones from the series made up three of the top five bestselling handsets. Apple made up the other two.

Omdia and Counterpoint Research differ slightly on the exact models that were the top sellers though. Omdia reports that Apple had five models in the top ten, Samsung had four, and Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 7 took one.

Counterpoint Research says that six of the top ten phones were iPhones, three were mid-range handsets from Samsung, and the final handset was Oppo’s A5, which it says also took the top spot in China.

Huawei was the second best-selling smartphone manufacturer in the world in 2019, behind Samsung and ahead of Apple for the first time, as its shipments increased between 2018 and 2019.

No one is denying that Apple is still a top phone maker worldwide, but its influence is falling and press reports should actually point that out rather than help prop up its image.