The big picture: Apple's iPhone 13 was the best-selling smartphone of 2022, accounting for five percent of global smartphone sales for the year. Even more impressive is the fact that Apple handsets captured eight spots in the list of top 10 best-selling smartphones.

According to Counterpoint Research's smartphone sales tracker, the top three best-selling smartphones last year were from Apple: the aforementioned iPhone 13, the iPhone 13 Pro Max and the iPhone 14 Pro Max, in that order.

The research firm said the iPhone 13 made up 28 percent of iPhone sales and was the best-selling phone each month from its launch in September 2021 through August 2022, just before the launch of the iPhone 14 series. The iPhone 14 Pro Max took over the top spot in September and held it through November, with the standard iPhone 14 claiming the number one position in the final month of 2022.

Samsung's Galaxy A13 captured the fourth position overall for 2022 but after that, it was five more iPhones in succession. Samsung's Galaxy A03 made it onto the board in 10th place with a 1.1 percent share of the total market.

Samsung's Galaxy A13 and Galaxy A03 are both entry-level models, and the only two phones on the list that do not support 5G connectivity. Both performed well in developing markets like India, Caribbean and Latin America (CALA), the Middle East and Africa.

Collectively, the phones in the top 10 accounted for 19 percent of total global smartphone sales in 2022. Counterpoint believes the collective market share of the top 10 handsets will increase this year as companies look to clear out inventory and optimize product launches.

Furthermore, the research firm expects brands to continue to lean out their portfolios in an effort to minimize cannibalization. We have already seen this happening over the past couple of years as the number of active smartphone models on the market has fallen from north of 4,200 in 2021 to near 3,600 last year.

Image credit: Imthiyaz Syed