iPhone 5: The Most Searched Smartphone in 2013

Lately there have been many reports announcing the demise of the iPhone as the world’s most popular smartphone. At first glance Apple is indeed losing in the smartphone market: Samsung is outselling Apple by a significant margin and Android is winning the platform war against Apple’s iOS.

At second glance, Apple’s position isn’t that bad after all. According to Strategy Analytics, Apple took home 57 percent of global smartphone profits in the first quarter of 2013, while most of its competitors (virtually all except for Samsung) are losing money trying to catch up with Apple.

We have turned to Google to add another aspect to the discussion, namely consumer interest. According to Google Trends, the iPhone 5 still sparks more interest (as measured by Google search volume) than its competitors do. The only smartphone able to compete with the iPhone 5 in terms of Google search interest is Samsung’s new flagship model, the Galaxy S4. But even the hugely popular S4 only managed to upstage the iPhone 5 twice this year: in the week of its official announcement and in the week it was first released.