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iPhone Market Share Dips Slightly as Android Increases Lead in Global Smartphone Race

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Apr 12, 2001
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Research firm Kantar Worldpanel has released a new report (via The Next Web) highlighting global smartphone sales over the October-December period, finding that while Apple's market share dip slightly in key markets, Google's Android devices increased their lead over other platforms during the end of 2013, registering year-over-year growth in various major markets.

kantar_wp_jan14.png
Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, comments: "Android finished 2013 strongly, showing year-on-year share growth across 12 major global markets including Europe, USA, Latin America, China and Japan. Apple has lost share in most countries compared with this time last year, but importantly it has held strong shares in key markets including 43.9% in USA, 29.9% in Great Britain and 19.0% in China.
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Apple's total market share in the U.S. hit 43.9% in December, and was overall lower in most countries compared to the same timeframe last year. However, Sunnebo stated himself in Kantar's prior report highlighting global smartphone sales over the August-October period that customers generally react more positively to "full" releases than incremental improvements such as the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c, which is the likely reason for the drop in market share.

Apple also continues to have strong presence in Japan, as the iPhone has held a steady market share in the months after the debut of the iPhone on the country's largest carrier, NTT DoCoMo:
In Japan, consumers' desire for all things Apple continued into the final quarter of 2013, with iOS taking 68.7% share of smartphone sales. Apple's deal to sell iPhones through Japan's largest carrier, NTT DoCoMO, has proved an unarguable success with Apple's share on the carrier reaching 58.1% in the fourth quarter compared with 91.7% on Softbank and 63.7% on AU KDDI.
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Despite its strong market share in various countries, the iPhone continues to face challenges in mainland Europe and China, where Android's market share is around 70% or higher in many countries. Microsoft's Windows Phone also continues to show growth in many markets, as the platform's market share has even overtaken that of iOS in Italy.

Article Link: iPhone Market Share Dips Slightly as Android Increases Lead in Global Smartphone Race
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/01/27/iphone-share-strong-android-lead/
iSRS

iSRS

macrumors 6502
Mar 2, 2010
468
291
Define "Holds Strong"

Look, I am a much of an Apple loyalist as they come, but hard to see the correlation between "Holds Strong" and losses in every country.

What I would like to know, what is going on with Windows phone in Europe? Nice job MS!
 
Z

Zwopple

macrumors regular
Dec 27, 2008
125
2,024
Marketshare shows little value these days, both platforms exist and will exist for many many many years to come.

Things we can guarantee on in the next 5 years at least:

* One will *always* carry a premium price
* One will *always* attempt to steal as much of your information as possible
* One will always be a more profitable ( margin wise ) to their owners
* Both will always exist
 
maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,467
43,387
Oletros said:
It seems that Windows Phone is starting to be a real contender
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Microsoft had the patience and money to ride the storm out and really work in growing the platform. That patience is paying dividends.
 
Z

Zwopple

macrumors regular
Dec 27, 2008
125
2,024
Teste said:
Wow, Android has 83,5% in most of Latin America. That's surprising.



I third this.
Click to expand...

It's not surprising that iOS has horrible numbers in less wealthy countries. I'd bet to say if you solely compared to "flagship" Android devices it wouldn't look so bad.
 
maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,467
43,387
Zwopple said:
It's not surprising that iOS has horrible numbers in less wealthy countries. I'd bet to say if you solely compared to "flagship" Android devices it wouldn't look so bad.
Click to expand...

But by the same token Apple has to do a better job at designing/selling their products. The numbers are not lying, other competitors are nipping at their feet.
 
R

Random Chaos

macrumors member
Jan 16, 2008
92
0
I am curious how this compares with the other tracking companies, given the strong November-ending quarter numbers reported by Comscore and 2013 numbers reported by NPD. I don't recall Kantar numbers in the past - what is their track record?

I can see that low cost Android phones would grab holiday sales more - people don't tend to gift high priced items as much as buy those for themselves.
 
Rogifan

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,132
31,176
Another meaningless market share report based on estimates from some firm. Until OEMs actually report sales figures we'll never know what the real market is and each companies share of it.
 
Z

Zwopple

macrumors regular
Dec 27, 2008
125
2,024
Oletros said:
Any source for this or it is just made up?
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Have you ever tried to use an Android device these day's without Google's Apps -- it's pretty much a brick otherwise.

Maybe 'steal' is the wrong word maybe not..

http://business.time.com/2013/03/13/did-google-get-off-easy-with-7-million-wi-spy-settlement/
http://www.3news.co.nz/Google-in-br...chdog/tabid/412/articleID/323360/Default.aspx
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/12/20/spain-fines-google-over-privacy-breaches/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...million-compensation-over-privacy-breach.html

The list goes on and on -- they have been caught many times trying to get around and get information they shouldn't be. Unless you run a rooted Android phone without any of Google's apps some of you're information will eventually get gathered and analysed, their entire business relies on nothing less than connecting the dots between your connected history to serve more targeted ads.
 
Stella

Stella

macrumors G3
Apr 21, 2003
8,838
6,339
Canada
A few more years of this trend and iPhone will become the third player in quite a few markets.
 
70s technology

70s technology

macrumors newbie
Nov 8, 2013
14
4
London
starbird said:
Look, I am a much of an Apple loyalist as they come, but hard to see the correlation between "Holds Strong" and losses in every country.

What I would like to know, what is going on with Windows phone in Europe? Nice job MS!
Click to expand...

Agree with the comments about the headline, though I find it odd to see their figures show Apple being dominant (ahead of combined Android figures) in the same quarter in 2012 for the US. News to me - I don't remember seeing any reports back then of Apple having the majority share in the US. Must look that up.

Regarding MS' success with Windows Phone in Europe, this isn't news, and has largely been attributed to Nokia's mindshare and brand presence here. Speaking from experience, they also provide a great mid-market option that compares very well to cheaper Android phones, which up 'til last year at least were invariably crap. I got a Lumia 710 for about £100 back in summer '12 off contract. The closest comparable Android phones were utter junk, and Apple don't play in that market.
 
T

Teste

macrumors 6502
Jan 8, 2011
353
5
Zwopple said:
It's not surprising that iOS has horrible numbers in less wealthy countries. I'd bet to say if you solely compared to "flagship" Android devices it wouldn't look so bad.
Click to expand...

I'm in Brazil myself. I'm surprised, because:

1. I have seen a lot of people with Samsung flagship devices, true, but even more people with iPhones.

2. I would have expected people who won't afford the flagship models to focus more on common phones than smartphones.

Hence, I would have expected a significantly lower rate of smartphone adoption than in more developed countries (which is there anyway), but less of a rift between Android and iOS.
 
Oletros

Oletros

macrumors 603
Jul 27, 2009
6,002
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Premià de Mar
Zwopple said:
Have you ever tried to use an Android device these day's without Google's Apps -- it's pretty much a brick otherwise.
Click to expand...

Thanks for showing that you made up the claim and that continuing the conversation with you would be a waste of time. When you can pout a single proof that Android steals information, write it, until then, have a nice day
 
MuGeN PoWeR

MuGeN PoWeR

macrumors 68040
Jun 29, 2011
3,184
1,215
Stella said:
A few more years of this trend and iPhone will become the third player in quite a few markets.
Click to expand...

i dont agree with you here. let the bigger iPhones release and then things will be different. IMHO iOS will stay there at second place.
 
keysofanxiety

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
maflynn said:
But by the same token Apple has to do a better job at designing/selling their products. The numbers are not lying, other competitors are nipping at their feet.
Click to expand...

I'd be tempted to disagree. Comparing iOS and Android is like comparing OS X and Windows. Windows is an operating system that will be installed on thousands of manufacturers' computers. Same with Android. It'll always have the advantage of market share.

There's no profit in marketshare.

It's only time to worry when a certain Android phone is outselling the iPhone. But as the iPhone increases its sales every quarter, and outsells the best selling Android phone by 5 to 1, there's still no reason to worry. People still want iPhones, and as the sales keep increasing it's difficult to spin this as being bad for Apple.
 
Z

Zwopple

macrumors regular
Dec 27, 2008
125
2,024
maflynn said:
But by the same token Apple has to do a better job at designing/selling their products. The numbers are not lying, other competitors are nipping at their feet.
Click to expand...

This is why Marketshare alone is misleading. If you strictly look at the percents it looks like they are bleeding customers but rather the bottom end of the market is growing at a much higher pace than the top end that has been around for longer.

As the market grows from the bottom Apple's share numbers will slide massively, 2014 will likely be the complete death of non-smartphones, you can hardly find them anywhere anyways as they are getting replaced with "Androids" all of which are labeled as "Smartphones" but many of which cannot even install the Google Play store due to cheap hardware.

I'm not saying that they are not Androids, it's just not representative to what people read out of these statistics.

Apple has absolutely zero desire to go into the low end marketshare, their 30 year history clearly demonstrates they have no desire to ever compete on razor thin margins.

To any business success lies in profit not market share. As long as they maintain high profitability nobody should be worried about their future.
 
GroundLoop

GroundLoop

macrumors 68000
Mar 21, 2003
1,583
62
Cali Fornia said:
That headline is a bit too optimistic for my taste.
Click to expand...

maflynn said:
I agree, iOS numbers are in the negative
Click to expand...

starbird said:
Look, I am a much of an Apple loyalist as they come, but hard to see the correlation between "Holds Strong" and losses in every country.
Click to expand...

What did you expect from an Apple-centric website. I love the Apple products that I do own (laptop and multiple iPads), but Apple really needs to get with the times on the iPhone. The software is decent, but it is too small for me (being 6'5" I have really large hands). If there is a larger iPhone on the horizon, then I could be convinced to move away from my 5" Android phone.
 
iSRS

iSRS

macrumors 6502
Mar 2, 2010
468
291
maflynn said:
Microsoft had the patience and money to ride the storm out and really work in growing the platform. That patience is paying dividends.
Click to expand...


True. One thing, for my personal taste, that I see wrong with their approach is the "one experience on all your devices"

Sorry, all my devices are not the same, don't get used the same, therefore, don't require the same experience. But, hey, at least they are doing their own thing.
 
Z

Zwopple

macrumors regular
Dec 27, 2008
125
2,024
Teste said:
I'm in Brazil myself. I'm surprised, because:

1. I have seen a lot of people with Samsung flagship devices, true, but even more people with iPhones.

2. I would have expected people who won't afford the flagship models to focus more on common phones than smartphones.

Hence, I would have expected a significantly lower rate of smartphone adoption than in more developed countries (which is there anyway), but less of a rift between Android and iOS.
Click to expand...

Nearly every "common phone" manufacturer is switching to Android because it's free and the development is solidly backed by Google. Hence you're seeing less common phones ( though to be fair they look like the common phones of today ).
 
Rogifan

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,132
31,176
maflynn said:
One thing is certain MS is gaining and BlackBerry is losing.

----------



I agree, iOS numbers are in the negative
Click to expand...

What is the source for these numbers? What companies besides Apple routinely
provide sales figures? I don't put a lot of stock in these numbers (whichever firm reports them and whether they're good or bad for Apple) because there's no way to validate them and often times prior quarters numbers will be restated with no real explanation at all. It will be interesting to see how these figures compare to Apple's when they announce quarterly results this afternoon.
 
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