Apple's iPhone X tops November sales in China, Japan & Great Britain

The X's strongest showing was in Japan, where it claimed 18.2 percent of sales, according to Kantar Worldpanel data published on Wednesday. Second in that region was the iPhone 8, with 17.2 percent.

In Great Britain the X led with 14.4 percent, contributing to Apple's best November showing there in over three years, as the complete iPhone range held 49.4 percent. Kantar warned however that it "remains to be seen" how long Apple can hold momentum given the X's 999-pound pricetag.

The phone took just 6 percent in urban China, but that was still enough to put it ahead of rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi. In fact a number of people are said to have switched from other platforms instead of upgrading from older iPhones, as with the majority of U.S. and European iPhone X buyers.

In Apple's affluent U.S. home, the X was surpassed by the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. The company's main global competition, Samsung, got no higher than sixth place with the Galaxy S8.

Collectively, iPhones dipped 3.8 percentage points in the country to 39.8 percent. Across the "big five" European markets Apple slipped 0.6 percentage points, coming in at 23.9 percent. It made up for this somewhat with China, rising 4.6 points there to a share of nearly 25 percent.