Digitimes Research: iPhone shipments totaled 33.8 million units in Q3 2013, up 25.7% year-on-year

In the past two years, Samsung's smartphones have stolen a lot of the iPhone's limelight, but iPhone shipments have continued to increase.

Recently, according to a research report from Digitimes Research, in the third quarter of this year, a total of 33.8 million iPhone phones, including 5s, 5c and 4s, were shipped, an increase of 25.7% over 2012.

The report said that due to its poor cost-effectiveness and unclear positioning, the shipment volume of iPhone 5c was far less than that of iPhone 5s, which prompted Apple to clear out the inventory of old iPhones in emerging markets by reducing prices. In the third quarter of this year, the retail price of iPhone was reduced to US$577.2, reaching a historical low, which directly led to a decline in revenue and affected the gross profit margin of distributors.

Currently, Apple's prospects in mainland China are widely optimistic. In particular, Apple is about to reach a cooperation with China Mobile, which will definitely play a positive role in promoting iPhone sales. After all, as the world's largest telecommunications operator, China Mobile's market share in China is as high as 70%.

In addition, Apple's iPhone shipments in the Japanese market are also growing steadily. It is worth mentioning that Apple will also cooperate with NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest telecommunications company, to further expand the Japanese market.