The 10 best-selling phones in the world, only one has AI

In the race to add AI features to phones, Apple is the slowest. However, this does not mean that iPhone sales are slow.

Apple is late with AI, but it's not necessarily a disaster. Photo: Pixelme .

The list of 10 best-selling phones in the first quarter did not change much as the iPhone still dominated in terms of quantity and leading positions. Samsung was the most prominent representative from the Android world with the S25 Ultra model. The remaining position belonged to Xiaomi with a device in the low-end segment.

Apple seemed to be facing disaster when it was slow to add AI features and broke its update promises. However, artificial intelligence does not seem that important to most customers.

AI is not that important

The delay in Apple Intelligence is disappointing news for many users, especially since the company advertises it as an important feature that will change the way you use your phone. On its website, the company labels supported models as “For Apple Intelligence.”

So far, a few small, discrete parts of the toolkit, like photo object removal and text rewriting, have been offered, but they’ve been underwhelming. The big guns, including the new Siri AI and Agent functionality, are still lagging behind.

The situation is not optimistic for Apple when its competitors are racing AI. Launching S25, Samsung added a series of new functions, adding context for artificial intelligence to operate automatically. Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Google or Honor also did the same. Almost every Android phone over 10 million VND has one or more AI functions.

The list of 10 best-selling phones in the first quarter only has the S25 Ultra pre-installed with AI generation. Photo: CounterpointResearch.

But in the end, the only name with artificial intelligence on the list of the world's best-selling phones is the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The affordable A models and Xiaomi's Redmi don't have the new technology. The iPhones are in the top positions, of course, seriously lacking in trendy features.

Data shows that users do not prioritize AI functions when choosing a new phone. It may be an add-on, a new experience. However, the core value of the product is the factor to attract customers.

If AI had been a top priority, iPhone sales would have been severely impacted. AI-powered phones like the Pixel or Galaxy would have dominated the top spots in the bestseller charts.

In fact, Apple was almost half a year behind its competitors when it launched Apple Intelligence. The company lost another year when it broke its promise to update. And that’s not even taking into account that only English-speaking countries got the chance to use it first. Meanwhile, a large number of users around the world are still waiting.

Order has been established

Comparing the best-selling phone rankings year after year, we can see that the market trend has been established, with little fluctuation. Despite users changing phones more often, the positions in this list have remained almost unchanged. There are always a lot of iPhones in the top positions, along with a Samsung flagship and a few low-cost Android models.

According to LifeHacker, this order reflects the fact that users tend to be more loyal. Specifically, iOS users upgrade to new iPhones. When it comes time to buy a new smartphone, this group does not hesitate between Apple or Samsung. They care about choosing the Plus or Pro version. It is the surrounding ecosystem and peripherals that tie users down.

Siri has Vietnamese, but does not support AI yet.

Similarly, customers who own Samsung will upgrade to Galaxy. Competition in the Android world is more intense, but Chinese companies will find it difficult to surpass Samsung, which sells well in the US and Europe.

On the other hand, AI is a good addition to phones when hardware capabilities are becoming saturated. It would be more effective for manufacturers to fully integrate the tool into the operating system. However, that is not the only option.

Despite Apple’s slowness, users can still download ChatGPT from the AppStore and access almost all of its features. iPhones are bad at removing objects, but customers still have hundreds of AI photo editing options on the software market.

Source: https://znews.vn/10-dien-thoai-ban-chay-nhat-the-gioi-chi-mot-chiec-co-ai-post1557158.html