The iPhone 12 is the best-selling 5G phone in the world. And it accomplished that feat just two weeks after its launch.

A report authored by Varun Mishra of Counterpoint Research shows how well the iPhone 12, along with other popular 5G phones, sold this past October. The individual numbers are interesting fodder for your cell phone brand fandom debate, while the big picture tells us some interesting things about the future of cell phones.

Apple occupies the first two spots on Counterpoint's list. At the top of the list is the basic iPhone 12, which accounted for 16% of all 5G phones sold worldwide in October, and one spot below it is the iPhone 12 Pro, which accounted for 8%.

Again, we are not surprised that the new iPhone sold well, but the fact that it took the top spot just two weeks after its launch is still impressive. More to the point, the iPhone 12 was able to enter the top 10 5G phones launched after January 2020 at #7, despite its late launch date.

The rest of the list features more familiar names, with Samsung's Galaxy Note 20 Ultra in third place, another flagship 5G phone that launched in mid-2020 and was at the top of the list before the iPhone 12 was launched. Other phones on the list include a pair of Huawei phones, including the P40 Pro, a pair of Oppo phones, and the basic Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy S20 Plus.

Counterpoint offered several different reasons to explain why this was the case, suggesting that iPhone users were particularly eager to upgrade to a 5G handset and that attractive offers from U.S. mobile operators helped persuade them The report suggests that Apple's offer of 5G handsets was a key factor in convincing them to upgrade. The fact that Apple is immensely popular around the world, rather than in some countries (like Huawei in China, for example), means that it was able to benefit from large sales not only in the US, but also in China and Japan

. Such iPhone 12 sales success could have a significant impact on what might be called "true" 5G, particularly mmWave 5G, rather than the simpler sub-6GHz 5G that most networks currently use. iPhone 12 is already compatible with mmWave 5G Counterpoint suggested that this could drive U.S. mobile carriers to develop mmWave capabilities. In turn, this could lead to faster and more reliable 5G services and help drive data-intensive applications such as augmented and virtual reality.

Counterpoint expects the iPhone 12's strong performance to continue beyond the end of the year, benefiting from the holiday sales season and a later than usual launch, meaning the normal iPhone upgrade cycle is still in place. iPhone 12 combined with the fact that all of the iPhone 12 models are great, Apple's newest flagship is sure to plague the world's best Android phones for at least another year.

We'll have to see if Samsung's Galaxy S21 can compete with its Apple rival when it arrives in January.