Android Dominates Nearly 80% of Smartphone Market, iOS Drops to 13% Share

[Asura]

Not surprising.

Perhaps now, Apple will think about reducing their iPhone hardware cost and market them in developing countries, where people are moving from basic cellphones to smartphones.


In developing countries, plans are pre-dominantely pre-paid, and customers have to shell out full retail price for the phone unlike US where Phones are heavily subsided by carriers.

 

[Piggie]

Strange isn't it how history repeats and Apple does not learn.

Apple computers could be on almost everyone's desk and Apple computers could run the work, in the same way PC's do now if Apple did what Microsoft did.

But no, they know better, and perhaps we are going to see a repeat performance with mobile phones.

Android on a vast sea of handsets by all the very top manufacturers in the world, even from the people who design and make the bits that go into iPhones, and yet Apple won't let go of iOS.

I'd love to see 10 or 20 years from now.

 

[BC2009]

Apple keeps putting their head in the sand. The numbers show it IS happening, no matter how special you think apple is.

Please don't mistake estimates for actual reported unit sales.

 

[tekno]

Yes $85. My son just bought a pre-paid plan with an Adroid phone. He bought the phone outright, no contract, from Amazon.com for $85

This was definitely a smartphone? Or was it a feature phone?

 

[blackhand1001]

Again.... we're talking shipments here... not sales... don't know how many of those new shipments are sitting dead on shelves???

Stores don't stock gigantic numbers and just let them sit on the shelf or in storage. The shipment numbers are likely close to actual sales.

 

[GenesisST]

Feel bad for Blackberry, lumbering dinosaur has turned into a lumbering woodchuck.

Windows growing is rather surprising, seems to be gathering traction now.

I have a friend that went from iPhone to a Windows Phone 8 one and he loves it!

As far as BlackBerry 10 goes, I've played with it and it is not bad at all, but with the limited usage I made of it.

Complacency is what put BlackBerry in the position that it is and we do not want Apple to go the same route. Time to step up your game and not just a new colour of paint on basically the same thing (AKA iOS 7, which I run on my phone... and yes, I'm a dev...)

 

[BC2009]

If someone prefers Stones to Beatles, that's opinion. If someone prefers Beach Boys, that's delusion.

Now that is funny. Love it.

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

Did you forget the last quarterly report already? Apple has continued to post declining profits, caused more importantly, by declining profit margins. Thats not 'increased profit' at all.

The specifics for this has largely been believed due to the iPhone 5 failing to woo customers over buying a cheaper iPhone 4(S). In addition, high-storage units aren't selling nearly as well as they used to - and thats where the really big margins were.

Not so at all. I chose my words carefully. Their overall profits were down, but I think it's very likely that iPhone profits were up (they don't break it down individually though), because of this statement

Quarterly iPhone unit sales reached 31.2 million, compared to 26 million in the year-ago quarter

Selling an extra 5.2M phones is surely enough to increase profit, even with a slightly higher mix of lower cost iPhones. The primary factor that lowered profit (in my opinion) was the reduced iPad sales, the high mix of iPad mini's, and the reduced Mac sales.

 

[rockland]

If someone prefers Stones to Beatles, that's opinion. If someone prefers Beach Boys, that's delusion.

I was referring to the period in the late Sixties when the Beatles were quite consciously competing with the Beach Boys. Think "Sgt Pepper" vs. "Pet Sounds" -- not "White Album" vs. "Kokomo".

 

[osofast240sx]

This includes feature phones not just smart phones. Very misleading headline. Fail

 

[JesusQuintana]

As an iOS developer, I'm wondering at what point I should abandon ship and switch to Android development. There still seems to be plenty of cash in iOS dev at the moment but how long will that last with a decreasing market share?

Do you design apps for poor people in China and India who buy $50 smartphones? If so, convert to Android. Otherwise stick to iOS.

 

[JGIGS]

The shipment thing could be misleading if iphones are turning and selling at a much quicker rate but usually smart phones are usually on a replenishment program sell one ship one back.

Anyway if it relates = to sales then Android has certainly taken a bite out of Apple.

The spin about Apple not releasing a new phone yet this year and that accounts for the drop in market share is bunk as well. They hadn't released the iphone 5 till fall last year as well and had a higher market share with the 4s last year at this time then they do with the iphone 5.

I personally see a lot more people with Android phones from the last 2 years. Almost everyone in Toronto had an iphone.

 

[tekno]

The problem with that market though is a) you don't make any hardware profit and b) you don't get any backend profit either. The people buying cheap-o phones are much less likely to pay for apps, music, movies, etc. They are simply the new feature phones.

But from the Google/Android point of view, isn't this a great thing? For Samsung, Sony etc. etc. I can see your point, but for Google it's got to be great. Android is spreading throughout the world, and both the rich and poor, developing and developed worlds are becoming familiar with it.

 

[mrgq]

This is more than obvious

Why does Android has such a lead in market share? Because there are thousands of devices out there running 5 to 6 different versions of Android vs. a couple of iOS devices (iPad, iPod, iPhone) all on different generations.

 

[AppleVsAndroid]

In simple words -

When lower class people rise to middle class, they will be buying more of Apple products. Its all about affordability for the lower class people and not the quality of products.

People who are buying other company tablets than the iPads have really really long way to go.

Tell those low cost buyers, what gift would you like? They will be all over the Apple products!!!

 

[Exhale]

Selling an extra 5M phones is surely enough to increase profit

Not when the average sale price significantly decreases.

the high mix of iPad mini's

An area which itself is a lower revenue driver. Again, the 'iPad Mini' problem exists for the iPhone as well, except is more severe due to 2 factors driving down sales prices (cheaper model, cheaper variants) - rather than just 1 (cheaper model). The inclination for high-capacity iPads is increasing, opposite to decreasing for the iPhone - and thats increasing margins.

and the reduced Mac sales.

Which in lieu of the above is small enough to fall within rounding error.

 

[Huracan]

I see no surprises here. This is the Apple/Mac vs. PC history repeating itself again. Apple focusing on high margin while the world around it is moving towards mass production, low margin products. Apple will still keep a niche percentage. At this rate I think Apple will eventually drop to 3-5% of market. Which is bad, because developers will move to develop first for Android and the history will repeat. Of course, Apple can do some things to prevent this, from licensing the IOS platform to low cost phones. However, similar things were tried with the Mac and failed. I don't want to be all doom and gloom but Apple is going to lose market share at increasing speed if it doesn't do anything to avoid this. On the other hand, the dominance in the tablet side should help on keeping a thriving IOS app marketplace.

Perhaps it won't be that bad to have a relatively low volume, low percentage market share, but with a high quality product. Here is also an opportunity for Apple to not make the same mistakes of the past and focus on real high end products, not trying to sell last year technology as innovation. Apple was late to LTE, it is falling behind on camera quality (and I don't mean just the megapixels). It still has a very good screen and very good battery life. The iPhone 5 is a good phone, no doubt.

For the next iPhone I would expect:
* Simultaneous phone calls and LTE data
* Voice over LTE and in general high def voice in North America
* Improved camera, in particular, improved low light pictures. Improved flash if possible
* Better battery life
* As a stretch goal I would like to see support for other navigation systems, in particular Galileo, but Beidou could be cool too. This is more likely we'll one or two years from now, as Galileo is in its infancy. GPS and GLONASS is plenty good for now.

 

[imwoblin]

Apple's hardware and software are more evolutionary vs revolutionary year after year. I think a certain demographic wants something new vs something revised. Competition is good, stay relevant or disappear.

 

[sclawis300]

I know that they're practically shipping low-end Androids in happy meals these days, so the big Google numbers are expected, but where are these Windows phone numbers coming from? I've still barely seen a handful of them.

Perhaps the real significance is that this graph shows shipments, not sales. Unfortunately, since Apple is the only platform owner to release actual sales, we can only speculate on the real marketshare.

you got one free with the purchase of a suit at Jos. A Bank a while back.

 

[Danyboy]

Unbelievable! I never thought Android will crush Apple that bad! In a few years iOS will be extinct!

 

[macrumors12345]

Sounds about right...

But an equally valid – and perhaps even more surprising – headline would read:
"China dominates smartphone market, US drops to 10%."

China now accounts for one out of every two Android handsets shipped (US is less than one in 10), and their homegrown, stripped-of-Google, Android-in-name-only phones have come to dominate the Android platform.

 

[CWallace]

But from the Google/Android point of view, isn't this a great thing? For Samsung, Sony etc. etc. I can see your point, but for Google it's got to be great. Android is spreading throughout the world, and both the rich and poor, developing and developed worlds are becoming familiar with it.

Google makes more money serving advertisements to iOS devices then they do serving advertisements to Android devices, so ironically, it is in Google's financial interests (at the moment) to see iOS grow stronger than Android.

Market share is still a multiplicative factor in profits.

If your Samsung, yes.

If you're any other major Android smartphone manufacturer, that does not appear to be the case based on recent financial reports.

As an iOS developer, I'm wondering at what point I should abandon ship and switch to Android development. There still seems to be plenty of cash in iOS dev at the moment but how long will that last with a decreasing market share?

iOS development appears to be less expensive (fewer versions you need to support with a more cohesive feature set across versions) and iOS customers as a percentage of the installed user base appear to be much more inclined to purchase an application.

Unbelievable! I never thought Android will crush Apple that bad! In a few years iOS will be extinct!

Not with the cash iOS hardware is bringing in.

 

[1member1]

As long as developers will keep developing for iOS eco system i won't even care of the iPhone marketshare.

in mac it's a different story, there are some apps that you can't get in mac and you need parallels/vmware/bootcamp in order to use them.

apple must keep the developers in iOS and in the end microsoft will give up.

 

[Ryth]

Unbelievable! I never thought Android will crush Apple that bad! In a few years iOS will be extinct!

Market share is a worthless metric.

Profit is the metric you measure.

Android has something like 4000+ different mobile phone handsets out there with less then 25% of the profit.

iOS has 5 mobile phone handsets with 75% profit.

Do the math. In fact, here you go.

Question: Company A has 25% market share and 75% profit share. Company Z has 75% market share and 25% profit share. Which company is doing better?

Answer: If you said anything other than company A, then you are dumber than a doorknob. Any intelligent person would take company A’s profit share over that of company Z’s market share.

The Joke Is On Us

Both “jokes” are based upon the old saw that one can lose money on every sale but make it up in volume. Unfortunately, the joke is on us because this is exactly the kind of nonsensical analysis that is being doled out by tech pundits and lapped up by the press and investors. You think I’m exaggerating? Take a gander at some of these recent tech headlines:

– Android is crushing Apple and Microsoft in the mobile device market
– Android looks like it’s winning
– CHART OF THE DAY: The iPhone’s Market Share Is Dead In The Water
– Despite its upmarket history, Apple needs to compete on price
– Gartner: Apple falls below 20% in smartphone market share
– Harvard Liquidates Apple Stake After IPhone Sales Lose Steam
– How Apple Is Losing Mobile
– IDC: Apple’s share of worldwide tablet market drops under 40%
– iPhone growth stalls as Android continues to nip away at Apple’s market share
– iPhone Market Share Stuck At 18%
– Nearly 75% Of All Smartphones Sold In Q1 Were Android
– Sharp to seek Samsung edge for survival as Apple sales lose steam
– Why Android Is Winning The Tablet Wars

I could link to a dozen more headlines just like them. These headlines – or their underlying articles – all have two things in common:

1) They contend that Android is winning and Apple’s iPhone is in deep, deep trouble; and
2) They point to market share as the sole or primary basis for their conclusion.

In other words, pundits think that Android has won because they “have a bigger truck” (i.e. more market share) – regardless of how much – or how little – profit Android manufacturers make. Android, the pundits opine without a hint of irony, is not making much, if any, money but that’s okay because they’re making it up in volume.

But is that really how market share works? Can you tell how well a company or an operating system is doing solely by measuring its market share?

No, of course not.

- See more at: http://techpinions.com/androids-market-share-is-literally-a-joke/16709#sthash.uBp2RIHm.dpuf

BTW, I've archived your post so in a couple of years, we can all laugh at you.

 

[M-O]

No real surprise here. Google is sorta in the position with mobile devices that Microsoft was with PCs. It looks like Apple will then occupy the same position that they did with PCs. As long as they can maintain the profit margin, they do pretty well as a niche player.

It works even with out the allusion to PCs. Google took over for Nokia. They dominate the low end, cheapest, and therefore most widespread segment of the phone market.

Cheap will always win market share.