Apple continues to achieve significant success in the smartphone market, with the iPhone Pro Max proving to be the preferred choice for millions of users around the world. This phone boasts exceptional performance, a sleek design, and innovative features that make its experience unique. By incorporating advanced technologies such as a high-resolution camera, a stunning display, and a long-lasting battery, the iPhone Pro Max has achieved record sales and secured a prominent position among the most popular phones. This article explores the reasons for this phone's growing popularity and how technological innovations have influenced users' choices.
Official: iPhone Pro Max is now the most popular smartphone in the world
If you're a fan of iPhones with massive 6.7-inch displays, you're definitely not alone—some new 2023 statistics show that Apple iPhone Pro models topped global annual shipments for the first time.
According to market analysts CanalysThe iPhone 14 Pro Max was the best-selling smartphone globally in 2023, closely followed by the iPhone 15 Pro Max. As the company stated, this reflects the “premium market shift” as well as the continued dominance of the iPhone, which occupied seven of the top ten spots (see below).
But what's particularly interesting is that in a year when the iPhone Pro model topped global shipments for the first time, it was Apple's two latest Pro Max models that took the top spots, not the smaller 6.1-inch Pro models. Given the growing feature gap between the Pro and Pro Max lines, this was clearly a deliberate tactic by Apple.
As you can see in our comparison of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple's most expensive model is no longer just a supersized version of the standard Pro. With the Pro Max, you get exclusive features like 5x optical zoom, along with superior battery life, a larger display, and more. The base iPhone 15 Pro Max also has 256GB of storage, up from 128GB in the standard Pro.
https://x.com/Canalys/status/1754898915843842338
However, the standard iPhone 13, 14, and 15 aren't far behind Apple's flagship models in terms of shipments, and there are three Android phones on the list as well.
These phones include the Samsung A14 4G and, more surprisingly, the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G, a more expensive model that bucks the trend of cheaper Samsung phones dominating the annual Android shipment list.
Pro Max Ascent
We had some strong indications last year that the iPhone Pro Max series was becoming the world's most popular smartphone, with global analysts Omdia revealing that the iPhone 14 Pro Max was leading shipments in the first half of 2023. But this new data from Canalys confirms it—Apple's largest phone is also the world's most popular.
There are likely several reasons for this. First, we're all updating our smartphones less frequently, which has meant a two-year decline in global phone sales (according to a recent study by Counterpoint). But when we do upgrade, we seem to be more likely to buy larger, more premium phones.
As IDC and Canalys recently reported, this trend saw Apple overtake Samsung in global smartphone shipments for the first time in 2023. As Nabila Popal, research director for IDC's Worldwide Tracker team, explained, Apple's success is largely due to "the growing trend of premium devices, which now represent over 20% of the market," and this has been "driven by aggressive trade-in offers and interest-free financing plans."
The slow but steady rise of the iPhone 15 Pro Max has led to it being labeled the most underrated phone of 2023, for the simple reason that it wasn't widely known for its popularity. Well, this new data changes that, representing a significant shift in smartphone popularity.
But will this trend continue this year? The latest rumors suggest that this year's iPhone 16 Pro may inherit some of the Max's key features, such as the periscope zoom lens. Some of the most interesting new features are also likely to be the alleged AI upgrades of iOS 18, which are expected to be widely available across the iPhone 16 lineup. It will be interesting to see whether the Max's popularity in 2023 is just a blip or a long-term trend for larger phones that were once called "phablets."
The iPhone Pro Max's importance as a leading smartphone option is evident in its exceptional features and unique experience. Whether you're looking for powerful performance, an outstanding photography experience, or a modern design, this phone has it all. Given ongoing technological innovations and Apple's focus on providing a superior user experience, the iPhone Pro Max's popularity is likely to continue to grow. As technological advancements continue, it remains an open question as to how the smartphone market will evolve in the future and how these developments will impact consumer choices.
