Kantar Worldpanel ComTech: Smartphones 3 months ending January 2014
Posted on 03/04/2015 3:15:16 PM PST by Swordmaker
The latest smartphone sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, for the three months ending in January 2015, show that Apple’s iOS reached its highest ever share in urban China with one in every four smartphones sold being an iPhone.
“Leading into Chinese New Year, Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus drove sales to an unprecedented high in urban China with iOS’ share of the smartphone market reaching 25.4% – a 4.5 percentage point increase over the same period in 2014,” reported Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. “Across key global markets Apple’s momentum generally continued from last month, although Android was able to slow down the decrease in share in some countries such as Germany, Spain and France where its sales had started to look like they were in free fall.”
“In urban China, Apple iPhone 6 was the best selling phone in the three months ending in January with a share of 9.5%,” explained Tamsin Timpson, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Asia. “Xiaomi had several smartphones in the top 10 chart with the RedMi Note its best selling device and the second most popular product behind the iPhone 6 which has a share of 8.9%”. Over the past three months, Apple continued to close the gap with Xiaomi, which remained the leading brand in urban China but with only a 2.2 percentage point advantage.
Across Europe, Android’s share declined by 2.2 percentage points year-on-year to 67.2% while iOS rose by 3.2 percentage points. “Great Britain was once again the market that recorded the sharpest drop in Android share.” said Dominic Sunnebo, business unit director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Europe. “However, a more stable performance by Samsung was able to hold share quarter-on-quarter and an improved performance by Motorola and HTC helped overall Android sales.” In Britain, Samsung’s Galaxy S5 was the second best selling smartphone with a share of 8.0%, just under half that of the iPhone 6 at 17.6%. The iPhone 6 was also the best selling smartphone in France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
For the three months ending in January 2015, 13.9% of iOS customers in the US switched over from an Android device – up from 12.1% in the three-month ending in December.
“As vendors flocked to Mobile World Congress this week to showcase their latest products it is noticeable how many have decided to focus on the mid-tier as success at the high-end appears more and more unattainable,” Milanesi concluded. “However, while mid-tier consumers might be more accessible than high-end ones, manufacturers will have to work harder than ever to stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace.”
Smartphone OS Sales Share (%) for 3 months ending (m/e) January 2015 vs. 3 m/e Jan 2014
Kantar Worldpanel ComTech: Smartphones 3 months ending January 2014
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Lead from behind tech works for people who buy branding over functionality.
God bless ‘em all and I do hope you are making money from your Apple stocks.
Next year — people will wake up and see that Apple stopped being an innovator 10 years ago. My suggestion is to just sell but YMMV...
I like Android for product value and Apple for stock value. Win-win.
My husband has an iPhone and I have an Android so neither one of us can ever help each other with problems or issues. But I do know we have Apple stock in our IRA so I must wish the company the best.
The Chinese number jumped from 17% (2014) to 25% (2015) because the 2014 number did not include China Mobile, which had not added the iPhone to its stable of offerings. It would be interesting to see what the iPhone sales were for China Unicom and China Telecom for 2015 vs 2014.
You are correct. China Mobile & Apple Bring iPhone to China Mobile’s 4G & 3G Networks on January 17, 2014. The numbers would be somewhat non-comparable for this particular three month period as only 2 weeks of China Mobile sales of iPhones would be included from 2014's same period. However, seeing as these are comparing total national market share for China, they are valid.
Ain’t competition great!
An interesting Forbes article re nerds comparing the S6 to IP 6.
http://search.comcast.net/?con=betac&cat=web&q=Samsung+Outguns+Apple+as+Galaxy+S6+Trounces+IPhone+6
When I bought my last phone a few months ago, most phones with a two year plan were free or $50 or so, while the iPhones were around $200. Then I noticed the iPhones were the same price as the rest of them.
I’d expect them to take some market share with that move.
I don’t touch apple products because of one word: Proprietary.
Oh, and because you can’t open them. My old Galaxy S battery stopped holding a charge. I bought a new one for $15 and the dang phone went 5 years before I had to change companies due to coverage issues at my new home.
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