Apple Continues to Hold More Than Half of U.S. Smartphone Sales

[MacRumors]

Research firm Kantar Worldpanel today issued a report indicating that Apple continued to maintain its position as the best-selling smartphone platform in the United States during the fourth quarter of 2012. Kantar Worldpanel, which releases its rolling quarterly data on a monthly basis, indicated that Apple retook the lead from Android in the August-October period and gathered a majority share for the first time in the September-November period.

Looking at year-over-year comparisons, iOS increased its market share in the final quarter of 2012 to 51.2% from 44.9% in the same quarter the previous year. Android sales remained almost constant at just over 44%, with nearly all of Apple's gains coming at the expense of Research in Motion and other smaller players.

"Apple's continual improvement is thanks to both the iPhone 5 and older models attracting various customer groups, from repeat Apple buyers, first time smartphone buyers and those coming from other smartphone brands," said Kantar Worldpanel ComTech analyst Mary-Ann Parlato.

Kantar Worldpanel notes that 35% of Apple's sales during the period were to those upgrading from a previous iPhone, with 36% switching from a competitor platform and 30% upgrading from a feature phone to their first smartphone.

Kantar's data comes just as Verizon announced its results for the fourth quarter, revealing that the iPhone represented approximately 63% of the carrier's total smartphone activations.

Article Link: Apple Continues to Hold More Than Half of U.S. Smartphone Sales

[dugbug]

Teh doomed

[frayne182]

Thinking RIM will make a bigger comeback this year.


BB10 is looking damn good. No joke.

[ForzaJuve]

So can someone tell me why my stock is trading below $500 this morning then?

[Xgm541]

Wonder what the "Apple will die" crowd will say now.

[RoelJuun]

Originally Posted by Xgm541

Wonder what the "Apple will die" crowd will say now.

The US is not their entire market.

[SpiderDude]

I was not expecting this...

[gnasher729]

Originally Posted by frayne182

Thinking RIM will make a bigger comeback this year.


BB10 is looking damn good. No joke.

They may easily double their market share. I bet any amount you want that Apple won't (since they have 51.2% now).

[irDigital0l]

This is good news.

Too bad these types of articles are kinda misleading. Android still has like 75% of US market share.

[rjc74]

I'd rather see a poll that shows they have the highest quality phones instead. I've been a fan and have had every iPhone since the first model in 2007. Nobody had them and it felt like the coolest thing around. I waited up until midnight last September to be one of the first customers to order the iPhone 5. It has so many glitches (Hardware? Software? Both?) that I'm done giving them the benefit of the doubt thinking each instance is a fluke occurrence. To name a few, sometimes the screen just dims itself all the way down but when I open brightness settings, the slider is still all the way to the right. If I manipulate the slider the brightness returns, I'm CONSTANTLY dropping LTE in downtown Portland, OR. Now I get that this could be the fault of my provider, AT&T, but during the time it takes to switch antennas it will sometimes get hung up on NO SERVICE and require a reboot. The last thing I feel like mentioning is that iOS 6 crashes. Often. I don't recall ANY of my other iPhones ever rebooting themselves.

Oh yeah! One more thing. When I answer a call and say "hello", most times I hear nothing because the caller never heard my first "hello" so I have to repeat myself. None of my other iPhones had this delay in connecting the call. What can I do? I'm locked in for 18 more months. Ugh. It's obvious that they are making a ton of phones because the quality has turned to %^#!.

[saturn88]

Originally Posted by ForzaJuve

So can someone tell me why my stock is trading below $500 this morning then?

Well, it's one "research firm" vs. stock market.

[Mr. Retrofire]

The U.S.-market is not important. China and India are important. At least for Apples profits.

[Technarchy]

Looking forward to RIM getting back into the game. BB10 looks pretty good.

[swarmster]

Originally Posted by ForzaJuve

So can someone tell me why my stock is trading below $500 this morning then?

AAPL is an extremely manipulated stock. Large brokerages short and release rumours and otherwise force the prices down, only to increase the pop later (maybe 4Q earnings this time?). The rumour mill and high price/volume makes it easy to ride up and down by hundreds of dollars if you're one of the big guys. I wouldn't take it as any reflection on Apple's actual performance.

[jrswizzle]

Originally Posted by Mr. Retrofire

The U.S.-market is not important. China and India are important. At least for Apples profits.

Lol really? Maybe not as important given the sheer number of people in those countries you mentioned....but as far as disposable income goes, the US is a HUGE market for Apple and will continue to be.

I find these numbers somewhat surprising given all the doom and gloom surrounding the company lately (from the media, tech "pundits" on this website and investors) - but really only serves to confirm what I've believed/how I feel about Apple (which is apparently a popular opinion) -

The iPhone/iOS "just works" (I can already feel onthecouchagain cringing) and at the end of the day - people are perfectly content with it and are in fact moving (back) to it from other platforms.

[JS82712]

This makes those idiots at WSJ look even more embarrassing.

[tonyshaker]

The fact that iOS is only available on iPhone 5 and 4s and android is available on many other phones doesn't that mean that apple is doing well because they cannot distribute iOS on many phones like android. correct me if I'm wrong.

[Tiger8]

Originally Posted by Mr. Retrofire

The U.S.-market is not important. China and India are important. At least for Apples profits.

You hit the nail on the head here. China, India, and Asia in general is a HUGE market, that's why I hope the rumors for the mid-market iPhone is true.

It is a different culture in Asian markets. Yes, not many people are willing to shell $650 for an iPhone, but many people are willing to pay $400 for a phone, but on the flip side they tend to change phones much more frequently. Americans tend to hang on to their devices at least for two years, many even more (contract) but get higher end devices when they upgrade. To each their own I guess

[AppleScruff1]

Apples dominance in market share is vital to the consumer.

[Patriot24]

Originally Posted by AppleScruff1

Apples dominance in market share is vital to the consumer.

Actually, it is. The more market share a platform garners, the more developers are willing to dedicate their time and resources to building great apps for that platform.

Devs have been flocking in drones to iOS for years because of the large market that exists thanks to Apple's market share. Meanwhile, RIM is literally writing checks out of their own pocket to entice developers to do half-assed ports of their apps to BB10.

Open the app store on all three platforms and say that it doesn't matter. It does.

[PracticalMac]

Originally Posted by frayne182

Thinking RIM will make a bigger comeback this year.

BB10 is looking damn good. No joke.

But will people take notice?

No where near the advertising budget of top 3 makers, let alone all together.

[jrswizzle]

Originally Posted by samcraig

Sorry - but you both clearly have issues. Obsess much? Why not just enjoy your phone/device and/or the stats in this thread without resorting to making this yet another "us vs them" thread?

+1 from someone in the "Apple camp".

Though - there is a part of me that would love to rub this in my brother-in-law's face....I think even he is starting to realize iOS has SOMETHING to offer....he's letting them give one to him at work to go along with his personal GS3

[samcraig]

Originally Posted by Patriot24

Actually, it is. The more market share a platform garners, the more developers are willing to dedicate their time and resources to building great apps for that platform.

Devs have been flocking in drones to iOS for years because of the large market that exists thanks to Apple's market share. Meanwhile, RIM is literally writing checks out of their own pocket to entice developers to do half-assed ports of their apps to BB10.

Open the app store on all three platforms and say that it doesn't matter. It does.

RIMs issue, as far as I can say, won't be the apps. That tends to work itself out with leading devs wanting to get their apps on various platforms for wide adoption.

RIMS "challenge" however - is that unlike Amazon, Google or Apple - their ecosystem doesn't stretch beyond that. They don't sell (do they?) books, music, videos, etc. So their "store" is already extremely limited compared to the competition.

Now this might matter to the business audience and/or people that don't consume media on their devices. But it's definitely a "hole."

[HenryDJP]

Originally Posted by ForzaJuve

So can someone tell me why my stock is trading below $500 this morning then?

Most people wish they had the funds to be in your position. Be honest about it, you bought them way lower than $500/share.
In regards to the investors, there's more going on at Apple than just smartphones that play into an investor's decision making.

[adildacoolset]

Originally Posted by samcraig

Sorry - but you both clearly have issues. Obsess much? Why not just enjoy your phone/device and/or the stats in this thread without resorting to making this yet another "us vs them" thread?

I think we've found out what those pundits who claim apple is doomed are saying now