Apple Sets New High with 53.3% of U.S. Smartphone Market, Android Holds Strong in Europe

[MacRumors]

Last month, research firm Kantar Worldpanel reported that Apple had retaken the lead in U.S. smartphone sales from Android over the August-October timeframe, topping Android by a 48.1%-46.7% margin on the strength of the iPhone 5 launch.

At the time, the firm suggested that Apple's share would continue to rise as the 12-week window of sales data shifted to include the iPhone 5 for its entirety, predicting that Apple would set a record high for market share within the following two periods.

Kantar Worldpanel has now released its data for the September-November period, and Apple has indeed set a record high with 53.3% of the market. Apple's share is up dramatically from 35.8% in the same period last year, although the iPhone 4S did not launch until later in the corresponding timeframe.

Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, comments: "Apple has reached a major milestone in the US by passing the 50% share mark for the first time, with further gains expected to be made during December."

Apple continues to fare less well in Europe, where even with growth of 2.5 percentage points year-over-year to reach 25.3% of the market, Android has surged farther ahead with a 9.2 percentage point gain and now holds 61% of the market.

Among the markets tracked by Kantar Worldpanel, Apple's best performance was in the United States, while its worst performances were in Brazil, Australia, Spain, and Italy, all countries where it lost share over 2011.

Article Link: Apple Sets New High with 53.3% of U.S. Smartphone Market, Android Holds Strong in Europe

[Patriot24]

Doomed.

[bmunge]

Gained nearly 20% of the market share in the last year... Wow.

[JAT]

Meh. Statistics may not lie, but you sure can make them say whatever you damn well please.

[camnchar]

Good to see Apple back on top, no matter how briefly.

And these Apple-related posts are fine and good, but what I'm really missing are PATENT LAWSUIT STORIES

[paul4339]

even the 25.3% in EU isn't too shabby.

[iMeanIt]

Holy crap Tim-man!

This is going to be AAPL's largest quarter ever - huge!

[BaldiMac]

Originally Posted by JAT

Meh. Statistics may not lie, but you sure can make them say whatever you damn well please.

What would you have liked to make them say?

[Mike MA]

And there goes RIM....

[samcraig]

Originally Posted by BaldiMac

What would you have liked to make them say?

He didn't suggest they should say anything different to appease him. He just said you can get statistics to say whatever you want.

[JAT]

Originally Posted by BaldiMac

What would you have liked to make them say?

Something where "sept-nov period" is not considered an actual term ever used before in the history of man. This is two oddly-picked periods of time, likely to justify making an article about it. It's not so much the analysis of statistics you use, it's what is used, and what is omitted.

[JHankwitz]

Originally Posted by JAT

Meh. Statistics may not lie, but you sure can make them say whatever you damn well please.

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics"
-- British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)

[Jaro65]

What the heck is Bada and why is it even tracked?

[JAT]

Originally Posted by Jaro65

What the heck is Bada and why is it even tracked?

I think they forgot Boom.

[Jaro65]

Originally Posted by JAT

I think they forgot Boom.

But wasn't that Big Bada Boom?

[flux73]

Originally Posted by Jaro65

What the heck is Bada and why is it even tracked?

Bada by Samsung

[BornAgainApple]

Originally Posted by Jaro65

What the heck is Bada and why is it even tracked?

Bada Bing!

[LagunaSol]

The problem is obvious: this forum needs more Android missionaries.

[fermat-au]

Originally Posted by Jaro65

What the heck is Bada and why is it even tracked?

As other have said Bada is a phone OS developed by Samsung. It you look at the whole World, link, then click Download all market shares here for the PDF, you see that while Bada has 0% in the US it is a little more popular in Europe, 6.5% in France. So World wide it is valid to track Bada.

[jbolden1517]

Originally Posted by Jaro65

What the heck is Bada and why is it even tracked?

It is an operating system from Samsung. It is tracked because it is more popular in other countries.

[Oletros]

My God, the US mobile market is totally different than the European an Asian ones

[gpat]

They are doomed.
To success.
No matter how disappointing or crazily priced their products are.
A 16GB iPhone 5 is 729€ here in Italy, and I bought a Galaxy Note 2 for 490€ today.
No wonder they are losing share over here.

[blackburn]

Originally Posted by gpat

They are doomed.
To success.
No matter how disappointing or crazily priced their products are.
A 16GB iPhone 5 is 729€ here in Italy, and I bought a Galaxy Note 2 for 490€ today.
No wonder they are losing share over here.

That is the problem in Europe is that the iPhone is crazy expensive. I can buy an iPad and an relatively cheap phone and it still doesn't cost as much as an iPhone.
Most of the people that have iPhones the company for who they work for is paying for them.

[Ted13]

Originally Posted by gpat

They are doomed.
To success.
No matter how disappointing or crazily priced their products are.
A 16GB iPhone 5 is 729€ here in Italy, and I bought a Galaxy Note 2 for 490€ today.
No wonder they are losing share over here.

Wow, talk about grey market opportunity: an unlocked (full price, no contract) iPhone 5 is $649 in the US - at today's rate 492€ exactly the same as your Samsung. Next time, get someone in the US to buy you an iPhone (or get one yourself on your next vacation). You end up with a much better deal, because when you decide to upgrade next, you can then sell your old iPhone for much much more than you would get for an equally old Android phone

[BC2009]

Originally Posted by gpat

They are doomed.
To success.
No matter how disappointing or crazily priced their products are.
A 16GB iPhone 5 is 729€ here in Italy, and I bought a Galaxy Note 2 for 490€ today.
No wonder they are losing share over here.

Unsubsidized markets hurt Apple especially when those markets are more price-conscious in a down-turn economy. The Apple app-store ecosystem has a much stronger "halo effect" effect on the iPad than it does on the iPhone. When folks buy an iPhone they are looking for social networking apps which exist on Android and games (which still suck on Android). However, if you don't need good games on your phone then iPhone has very little ecosystem advantage over Android (probably not enough to overcome the price difference). Suddenly the iPhone becomes more about its interoperability with Mac, Apple TV, and iPad which then assumes those other things are playing "halo effect" to the iPhone which is not as strong as the reverse situation because the Mac and iPad cost more. Nevertheless, Apple's market share (even with a premium price) should improve in Europe as the European economies improve and the price sensitivity drops.

If Apple could release a powerful low-cost iPhone n Europe then they might be able to fend off Android a bit better in those markets even in economic down-turns.