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iPhone Market Share Expected to Hit 68% in the United States by 2017

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68% of Americans are expected to own an iPhone when the smartphone market reaches its saturation point in 2017, according to new research done by Asymco analyst Horace Dediu. Citing a parallel between the growth of the smartphone market and the growth of the iPhone over the years, Dediu predicts that both will continue to grow alongside each other as the smartphone market hits a saturation point at 90% in February 2017 with a predicted 180 million U.S. iPhone owners by that time, giving Apple a 68% market share.

iphone_marketshare_2017.png
If we believe that the iPhone can be modeled behaviorally then it may be possible to forecast its growth. One can simply draw a line extending the existing red segment above and read the F/(1-F) figure at any point in time. Solving for F results in a measure of penetration and hence number of users (if population is known.)

An alternative is to use the following formula derived from the linear interpolation of the two measured market shares. iPhone market share is y/(1+y) where y=0.21x and x = F/(1-F) and F is the expected market penetration of smartphones.

So if F = 91%, x = 10, y = 2.11 and therefore the iPhone market share = 68%.

We also know from the plot of the market that F = .91 is reached around February 2017. So we can suggest that at 90% penetration (approximately saturation) the iPhone will have 68% market share of users in the US. Forecasting the addressable market (US population aged older than 13) at about 266 million that implies 180 million US users of the iPhone by early 2017.
Click to expand...
As Forbes points out, the idea of smartphones being used by 90% of the population by Dediu's projected date would mean that the market would hit full saturation less than 10 years since the introduction of the original iPhone, making smartphones the fastest adopted technology in history:
And the remarkable thing about this is that the smartphone won't even be ten years old by that point. Yes, the first real smartphone (there were attempts before this but nothing that really grasped peoples' attention) was indeed the iPhone and it was released in 2007. But not until June: so if market saturation comes in Feb 2017 then market saturation will come in just under a decade.

And that is just amazing, stupendous in fact. It makes the smartphone by far the fastest adopted technology ever.
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According to data from research firm Kantar Worldpanel posted earlier this month, the iPhone's market share in the U.S. hit 52.8% in October following the launch of the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c. In the previous year, Apple's market share was at 53.3% following the launch of the iPhone 5, and was at 36% and 25% in the two years prior with the launch of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, respectively.

Article Link: iPhone Market Share Expected to Hit 68% in the United States by 2017
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/12/16/iphone-market-share-expected-to-hit-68-in-the-united-states-by-2017/
dannyyankou

dannyyankou

macrumors G5
Mar 2, 2012
13,013
27,997
Westchester, NY
If we believe that the iPhone can be modeled behaviorally then it may be possible to forecast its growth. One can simply draw a line extending the existing red segment above and read the F/(1-F) figure at any point in time. Solving for F results in a measure of penetration and hence number of users (if population is known.)

An alternative is to use the following formula derived from the linear interpolation of the two measured market shares. iPhone market share is y/(1+y) where y=0.21x and x = F/(1-F) and F is the expected market penetration of smartphones.

So if F = 91%, x = 10, y = 2.11 and therefore the iPhone market share = 68%.

We also know from the plot of the market that F = .91 is reached around February 2017. So we can suggest that at 90% penetration (approximately saturation) the iPhone will have 68% market share of users in the US. Forecasting the addressable market (US population aged older than 13) at about 266 million that implies 180 million US users of the iPhone by early 2017.
Click to expand...

I have no idea what this means, but it would be awesome if it happens!
 
osofast240sx

osofast240sx

macrumors 68030
Mar 25, 2011
2,539
16
Here come the Trolls and naysayers!!!

Once the 4.97" iPhone comes out its Game Over!!!!!!!!
 
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,560
6,059
What percentage of the US population owned an iPod, when that number peaked? Or, I guess, to make a fairer comparison, what percentage of the US population owned any MP3 player when that number peaked? How long did that take? Just curious, since this article is saying the smart phone will be the fastest product to ever hit saturation when it takes 9.7 years.
 
kalsta

kalsta

macrumors 68000
May 17, 2010
1,677
577
Australia
Is it just me or does that yellow line look like the path of a ball when you throw it into the air—moments before it peaks and then comes plummeting back down to earth? ;)
 
X

Xgm541

macrumors 65816
May 3, 2011
1,098
818
Something about a straight line prediction of smartphone penetration and iphone market share seems unsettling. Sometimes I wish I was an analyst because their job seems easy.
 
TallManNY

TallManNY

macrumors 601
Nov 5, 2007
4,741
1,594
ArtOfWarfare said:
What percentage of the US population owned an iPod, when that number peaked? Or, I guess, to make a fairer comparison, what percentage of the US population owned any MP3 player when that number peaked? How long did that take? Just curious, since this article is saying the smart phone will be the fastest product to ever hit saturation when it takes 9.7 years.
Click to expand...

I'm sure far less owned an iPod. How many older men and grandparents were rocking iPods?

I think these numbers are ambitious because those Google phones are coming in super cheap. I can afford an iPhone and will continue to get them. But now that decent android phones are available at $200 and near flagship at $350, I can't see iPhones capturing that much of a market that has grown that large.
 
H

halfapie

macrumors member
Oct 19, 2005
92
43
To say that smartphones did not exist in a meaningful way before the iPhone is just ignorance bordering on stupidity. iPhone was a big jump in smartphone tech and adoption but not the first mass market smartphone. those early years of smartphones with palm should count towards the adoption history.
 
T

thelookingglass

macrumors 68020
Apr 27, 2005
2,138
633
Unfortunately for mathematicians, reality doesn't always fit neatly into their models. I wouldn't put too much stock into this. There are so many variables, many unknown and unpredictable, that can change the landscape of the smartphone market. Making predictions like this is really just for kicks and giggles.

That said, Apple has a real opportunity to make a big splash next year with iPhone 6, if indeed they will be making a larger iPhone. Samsung has a competitive edge in many places now as people seem to like large screened phones. I'd expect an iPhone with a large screen to be immaculately designed and engineered and marketed. This phone can do to the market what HTC just did not have the muscle to do with their HTC One. Really looking forward to it.
 
Small White Car

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
I have no clue if any of his logic makes sense. The only thing that I can add is that I know far more people who have switched from something else to an iPhone than I know who switched from an iPhone to something else.

So based on that I can see how marketshare could be malleable and not dependent on past results.

But all that says is that higher iPhone share isn't impossible. Not that it will happen.
 
CyberBob859

CyberBob859

macrumors 6502a
Jun 13, 2007
584
442
Xgm541 said:
Something about a straight line prediction of smartphone penetration and iphone market share seems unsettling. Sometimes I wish I was an analyst because their job seems easy.
Click to expand...

Especially when the y-axis is logarithmic.
 
Small White Car

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
halfapie said:
To say that smartphones did not exist in a meaningful way before the iPhone is just ignorance bordering on stupidity.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure they're talking about sales numbers, not the quality of the phones.

And they're right. No one had numbers in 2006 that was anything close to what is sold today.
 
H

halfapie

macrumors member
Oct 19, 2005
92
43
Xgm541 said:
Something about a straight line prediction of smartphone penetration and iphone market share seems unsettling. Sometimes I wish I was an analyst because their job seems easy.
Click to expand...

to be fair, it is only a straight line on a log scale. but honestly if the dude took any classes in market adoption the traditional curve is an s curve. his analysis is only looking at the exponential part of the S-curve which is why he has to say that smartphones did not exist before the iPhone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoption_curve
 
gnasher729

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
TallManNY said:
I'm sure far less owned an iPod. How many older men and grandparents were rocking iPods?

I think these numbers are ambitious because those Google phones are coming in super cheap. I can afford an iPhone and will continue to get them. But now that decent android phones are available at $200 and near flagship at $350, I can't see iPhones capturing that much of a market that has grown that large.
Click to expand...

Android phones may be cheap, but as long as people have the money to buy an iPhone, and iPhones are considered to be better, Apple will be fine.
 
T

thundersteele

macrumors 68030
Oct 19, 2011
2,984
9
Switzerland
No question, the iPhone is exceptional, no matter how the numbers will work out in the future.

One thing I am missing here is how people who own multiple smartphones are taken into account. And of course, there is always the following:

extrapolating.png

(Source: XKCD)
 
M

MacCruiskeen

macrumors 6502
Nov 9, 2011
321
5
gnasher729 said:
Android phones may be cheap, but as long as people have the money to buy an iPhone, and iPhones are considered to be better, Apple will be fine.
Click to expand...

Neither of those conditions are likely to continue forever unchanged. More to the point, Apple phones have to be seen as enough better to justify the higher price. Surely the history of technology adoption demonstrates that many people will be satisfied with the "good enough" solution if the marginal benefit of the better solution is seen as not worth the extra cost.
 
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