The best-selling cell phones in history: there is not a single Android in the top 20 of the ranking

There are few cell phones who managed to enter the select group of best sellers worldwide in the last 20 years. They are not those that bring together the best of the latest technologies in processors, cameras and even artificial intelligence; But those who marked the era were the more rudimentary and productiveeven from brands that today were relegated behind Apple or Samsung, according to a study by the agency Visual Capitalist.

It has been more than 50 years since the first call with that gigantic DynaTACalthough the explosion of the industry would not occur until the late 90s and even early 2000s, when Nokia dominated and the smartphone era was not even noticed, with phones so basic that They could only make calls and send short messages with limited characters.

These peculiar mobile devices, rare in our days, are now called feature phones. Basically, a basic phone that has only the fundamental functionssuch as calling, or sending and receiving messages.

But far from any type of underestimation, none of today’s powerful smartphones managed to outsell the emblematic equipment that the Finnish Nokia sold in the years 2000-2005.

It’s curious to see how Nokia is at the forefront: three of its flagship devices are among the five and no less than ten positions among the 20 best-selling mobile phones in all of history. Both records may surprise the youngest, because this mythical brand fell from grace after its mistakes with Symbian operating system to be recovered by HMD Global.

Samsung and Motorola appear in the list with one device each, from position 11 the Samsung E1100 and the 17th Motorola RAZR V3 with “tapita” that brought so much success to the brand. Almost twenty years after its launch, this model returned to sale with the particularity of having flexible screen.

Another surprising fact about this ranking is that there is no androidand obviously the diversity of options in the catalog available on the Google platform means that the sales figures are diluted without a single smartphone managing to sell too many units.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 They sold more than ever in the flagship Android series, and yet They didn’t even reach 40 million units. In important markets such as China or India they sell relatively little compared to other options.

As for numbers, the truth is that the data is overwhelming. Nokia’s most basic series at the beginning of the 2000s, when the democratization of these devices was beginning, managed to sell no less than 250 million Nokia 1100 and 248 million of the Nokia 1110 model. Almost 500 million phones that cost about 100 dollars.

Historically, always iPhone They also sold very well, especially the more evolutionary series with respect to previous generations such as the Iphone 6 (large screens) or iPhone X (all screen format with notch).