In a way, it's not that surprising because we kind of expected it since it's such a great phone. But what is surprising though is that even with so many other Android alternatives out there, this Android phone alone manages to get pretty close to the numbers of a newly launched iPhone.
Many people don't realize that one of the reasons why the iPhone sells so much more than any single Android phone in general, is exactly because there is only one such phone every year. Imagine if Apple sold 10-20 different iPhone models every year. You could see why even though the total market share would probably rise a bit, any single iPhone model would sell a lot less than the current one-per-year models.
So yes the iPhone is great and Apple is a great company, too, but that's not the only reason the iPhone usually outsells any single Android device out there by a large margin. It's also because people can choose from a tens of different Android devices, too.
It doesn't really get close to the launch numbers of the iPhone. (Pre-iPhone 4 launch numbers, sure, but the market as a whole is growing so quickly that those comparisons don't make sense at all.)
Nobody is getting the phones for free, of course. Samsung makes the same amount of money on the phone whether you pay $0 and the carrier pays $529 or you pay $529 and the carrier pays $0.
Many people don't realize that one of the reasons why the iPhone sells so much more than any single Android phone in general, is exactly because there is only one such phone every year. Imagine if Apple sold 10-20 different iPhone models every year. You could see why even though the total market share would probably rise a bit, any single iPhone model would sell a lot less than the current one-per-year models.
So yes the iPhone is great and Apple is a great company, too, but that's not the only reason the iPhone usually outsells any single Android device out there by a large margin. It's also because people can choose from a tens of different Android devices, too.