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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Research firm NPD today announced the results of its latest Connected Home Report, showing that Apple increased its share of the U.S. smartphone installed user base by seven percentage points, from 35 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 42 percent in the same quarter of 2013. Second-place Samsung increased its share of the market by a smaller margin from 22 percent to 26 percent, while other major manufacturers saw their shares drop.

npd_us_smartphone_base_4q13.jpg

NPD's data, which is based on a survey of roughly 5,000 consumers, is in close alignment with recent data from comScore that showed Apple with 41.2 percent of the market and Samsung at 26.0 percent in the September-November period.

Both firms track installed user base rather than sales, offering a more realistic picture of real-world usage but which is slower to react to shifting market trends given typical handset lifespans. Apple has shown steady increases under these studies over the past several years, even as Android has experienced significant growth. One recent study of trends by Asymco's Horace Dediu has predicted that Apple's share of installed user base in the U.S. will peak at 68 percent in 2017 when the smartphone market hits a saturation point at 90 percent of the country's population.

While Apple's performance remains strong in the U.S. and several other countries, Android has had more success attracting customers in many other markets around the world. Data from Kantar Worldpanel for the August-October period pegged Apple's share of the market in many European countries and China in the 15-20 percent range, with iOS barely registering in some countries such as Spain.

Article Link: Apple Widens Lead Over Samsung in U.S. Smartphone Race in 2013
 

SPUY767

macrumors 68020
Jun 22, 2003
2,041
131
GA
Apple Releases new phone which during the time period outsells Samsung:

Tech Media Reaction: . . .

Samsung Releases new phone which during the time period outsells Apple:

Tech Media Reaction: Oh my god Apple is dead within the year!
 

proline

macrumors 6502a
Nov 18, 2012
630
1
Can't wait to hear people tell us how the most profitable smart phone market in the world doesn't matter ;)
 

Klae17

macrumors 65816
Jul 15, 2011
1,226
1,576
You may have switched over to Samsung and Android, but welcome back.

P.S. Wait 'til the 4.5 iPhone 6 comes out. Slaughter!
 

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
They've finally saturated the carriers. Now any position swap can be seen as more pure userbase movement then a carrier phenomenon.
 

proline

macrumors 6502a
Nov 18, 2012
630
1
You may have switched over to Samsung and Android, but welcome back.

P.S. Wait 'til the 4.5 iPhone 6 comes out. Slaughter!
Yeah, considering that having a display larger than 4" seems to be about the only advantage Samsung has that anyone cares about, and that said advantage will be long since removed by this time next year, the tech media ought to be shifting the narrative to Samsung's impending doom. And by doom I mean that they will continue to do fine at their core strength- selling hardware at 2% profit margins in developing countries. Their days of making phones with Apple-like prices and margins are numbered.
 

PollyK

macrumors regular
Apr 18, 2013
197
0
But.... But... 3.5 inch screen is the perfect size. Why do the blind loyalist now want a 4+ inch screen. The loyalist said a 4 inch screen couldn't be used with one hand. But on the iPhone it's possible. They said 4.3 inches was too big too, now they say 4.7 inch is the sweet spot. Why does the loyalist's goal posts keep moving?
They said a cheaper iPhone will kill Android, but somehow it didn't work out that way. They all laughed at the bigger screens, but now they follow Samsung who has made bigger screens and smaller bezels since the beginning.
 

jkichline

macrumors 6502
Aug 25, 2010
362
190
All they need to do...

So all Apple needs to do is come out with the edge-to-edge 4.5" or 5" screen and then offer a trade-in program for any old Android device. You know there are millions of those laying around doing nothing. Just drag your clunker in for a shiny new 6c.
 

BuffaloTF

macrumors 68000
Jun 10, 2008
1,761
2,214
eat it S4.

I think they are eating it... And by "it" I mean the other Android OEMs market share. 26% is wildly successful still. Combined, Apple and Samsung they're closing in on 3 out of every 4 smartphones owned being 2 brands, 2 visions. That's incredible in general, and I don't think they'll need to cry themselves to sleep being on the short end of that number. They'll probably be over that 75% mark in a years time.
 

paul4339

macrumors 65816
Sep 14, 2009
1,447
730
They've finally saturated the carriers. Now any position swap can be seen as more pure userbase movement then a carrier phenomenon.

Smartphones had about a 62% penetration into the mobile market as of Sept 2013 (comScore). In Asymco's charts it has around 75% in 2014... there's still some growth, but it's entering into the later stages soon.

.
 

Renzatic

Suspended
Apple Releases new phone which during the time period outsells Samsung:

Tech Media Reaction: . . .

Samsung Releases new phone which during the time period outsells Apple:

Tech Media Reaction: Oh my god Apple is dead within the year!

I thought the iPhone was failing... silly NPD.

I have never once seen a tech site flat out state Apple was dying a slow, grueling death. About the worst you see are claims that they're no longer the only player in the market, and they might need to up their game if they want to stay competitive in the long term.

Building a culture of victimhood around a brand is a sad, sad thing, people.
 

Chupa Chupa

macrumors G5
Jul 16, 2002
14,835
7,396
Clearly evidence that iPhone users are sick of the current "small screen" format & are holding out for a larger screen or have defected to the S4. :rolleyes: (yes, being sarcastic.)
 

teknikal90

macrumors 68040
Jan 28, 2008
3,343
1,892
Vancouver, BC
Yeah, considering that having a display larger than 4" seems to be about the only advantage Samsung has that anyone cares about, and that said advantage will be long since removed by this time next year, the tech media ought to be shifting the narrative to Samsung's impending doom. And by doom I mean that they will continue to do fine at their core strength- selling hardware at 2% profit margins in developing countries. Their days of making phones with Apple-like prices and margins are numbered.

no. also, cost
 

jkichline

macrumors 6502
Aug 25, 2010
362
190
The issue...

But.... But... 3.5 inch screen is the perfect size. Why do the blind loyalist now want a 4+ inch screen. The loyalist said a 4 inch screen couldn't be used with one hand. But on the iPhone it's possible. They said 4.3 inches was too big too, now they say 4.7 inch is the sweet spot. Why does the loyalist's goal posts keep moving?
They said a cheaper iPhone will kill Android, but somehow it didn't work out that way. They all laughed at the bigger screens, but now they follow Samsung who has made bigger screens and smaller bezels since the beginning.

The issue is being able to use the phone in one hand with your thumb. I can barely do that with an iPhone 5, but love my 4s for that reason alone. So the trick is making the larger screen usable in one hand. I think Apple could do this by changing screen modes, making the entire screen the bezel. For instance, imagine a 1280x720 pixel iPhone, but when in normal one hand use (aka not full screen) the current 640x1136 screen is displayed with the rest blotted out with e-ink. When you go to play a movie or a game, the screen usage shifts and the full screen is used.
 

SVTmaniac

macrumors 6502
Jan 30, 2013
412
714
Clearly evidence that iPhone users are sick of the current "small screen" format & are holding out for a larger screen or have defected to the S4. :rolleyes: (yes, being sarcastic.)

You do realize Samsung isn't the only phones with larger than a 4" screen, right? S4, LG, G2, Nexus 5... the list goes on. The problem with this graph is Apple is the only manufacturer selling a phone with iOS on it. Look how many companies sell Android phones. A more fair comparison would be Apple vs. Android phones. If you add all the other companies that make Android phones up, it clearly blows Apple away. I'm sure if other comanies made phones with iOS on it, it would not look nearly as skewed as it does here.
 

TWSS37

macrumors 65816
Feb 4, 2011
1,107
232
Thread like these summary:

Reports that show Apple "ahead": GO APPLE!!!!!!!!!

Reports that show Apple "behind": These reports don't mean anything.
 
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