Apple's U.S. Smartphone Usage Share Continues to Climb

[Codyak]

A US site showing US number, fascinating.

 

[SactoGuy18]

Unfortunately, this is a skewed measurement by worldwide standards because here in the USA, most people buy "subsidized" cellphones from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile USA and Verizon, and that tends to favor the iPhone 5S/5C models.

In most of the world, people buy their cellphones "unlocked." Because the unlocked price of an iPhone 5S/5C are quite high, outside the USA there is way more market penetration for Android and even Windows Phone 7.x/8.x cellphones, and Apple is not such a dominant player.

 

[Michael Scrip]

We mostly see US numbers. I'd be more interested in international numbers or at least breakdowns by different countries. Apple doing well in the US is almost a given these days. The more interesting stories are what's happening abroad.

We see international numbers all the time.

Worldwide... Android has 80% of the smartphone market... the iPhone has 12%... and Windows Phone and Blackberry each have single digits. Those reports come out every 3 months.

And we've even seen other countries' numbers too. Remember the report that Windows Phone was outselling the iPhone in Argentina, India, Poland, Russia, South Africa, and Ukraine? Woohoo!

Kantar publishes smartphone market share in 10 individual countries:

The point is... the international numbers are out there... and MacRumors posts them frequently. They're mostly from analysts... but it's all we can get.

I hope this helps.

.

 

[Tech198]

...and Australia continues to drop.

I admit we don't climb as fast (we get blisters) ...... but how a bit of love for the rest of the world Apple, there is a bigger thing outside that small box you live in called Cupertino.

I never go by for this very reason. Of course they only favor the best. It's in their best interest, regardless of how less popular/market share outside U.S may have... That is not an issue.

The issue IS, that WE use Apple products too. If Microsoft started doing the same thing and excluding countries, then they'd be an up-roar.... market share has nothing to do with it... It's just Apple chooses not too..

*sets sail for open waters*

 

[Updesh]

What am I missing

I really don't understand how anyone can acclaim Apple's iOS going into 2014. I watch these commercials and see the same 6 year old phone marketing the same features every other phone has. Android has made further progress. On the initial startup everyone can see that iOS homescreens are a complete joke of modern software, the entire home interface is just a background with icons and labels on it. This is simplicity with loss of functionality. Widgets and the wide array of user customization are a serious feature missing from this operating system. It seems the common topic is that the 'app ecosystem' is somehow better on iOS than android due to the sheet number of apps on the appstore. The Apple appstore simply outnumbers android, it does not out feature android. There are close to no apps that exist on ios that do not have an equivalently functioning app on android. The ecosystem remark made is commonly used in conjunction with a lack of android's 'tablet optimized apps'. This is to say, that some apps made for phones do not scale to fill 'whitespace' on the displays of android tablets. This is rubbish to say that an app needs to clutter the screen more because there's more room to crowd with features. I'll argue that there are no apps on iOS that serve the function of modifying the operating system to extent that android provides. Apps like launchers, permission controllers, system maintenance, and hacking utilities. This is largely due to the difficulty of sideloading apps being unreasonable on iOS. Apple has control over what users are allowed to install to their device, and they make users do it through their store, and their store alone. Not only to profit through mobile developers having to use their service, but to hold the users hand along the way in the name of security.

I see these kind of comments all the time, but I regard myself as a very technical guy - still build my own PCs and support 20+ computers for my family and I'm struggling to understand what my iPhone doesn't do for me- especially when I factor in that pretty much every country I travel to - I spend 30+ weeks travelling - there is some form of Apple infrastructure for my phone, hotels that have iPhone compatible TVs etc.

What part of the reliability, simplicity and support experience that I feel I have with my iPhone 5s (and I've owned them since 4s) that you think would be enhanced or improved with an Android device

I've not seen a single Android feature that I wish I had on my phone - but I accept you may know something I am missing. So I'd appreciate you telling me very specifically what it could be

I don't care about customization, and yet to find an App that my Android using friends and family have that I don't, so what am I missing

I'm really interested to learn

 

[Oletros]

I've not seen a single Android feature that I wish I had on my phone - but I accept you may know something I am missing. So I'd appreciate you telling me very specifically what it could be

I don't care about customization, and yet to find an App that my Android using friends and family have that I don't, so what am I missing

I'm really interested to learn

You know that you don't see them or you don't want them doesn't mean that they don't exist, do you?

There are features on iOS ecosystem that I would like to have on Android like better accessory support or better BT LTE support and there are some Android features that I would be glad to see on iOs like broadcast receivers, intents or the possibility to change the default keyboard.

An application like Tasker would be a killer app for me on iOS

 

[2457282]

We mostly see US numbers. I'd be more interested in international numbers or at least breakdowns by different countries. Apple doing well in the US is almost a given these days. The more interesting stories are what's happening abroad.

as reported today in the new york times (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/b...gs-decline-than-expected-for-end-of-2013.html) --

"For several years, Samsung and Apple have been battling for leadership in high-end phones. Now Apple is making new gains. In November, it sold 65 percent of the smartphones priced at $400 or more worldwide, up from 35 percent a year earlier, according to Counterpoint Technology Market Research. And that was before Apple added China Mobile, the world’s largest network operator, as an iPhone partner, with sales set to begin this month.

In the same period, Samsung’s share of the premium market fell to 21 percent from 40 percent, according to Counterpoint. "

 

[Updesh]

You know that you don't see them or you don't want them doesn't mean that they don't exist, do you?

There are features on iOS ecosystem that I would like to have on Android like better accessory support or better BT LTE support and there are some Android features that I would be glad to see on iOs like broadcast receivers, intents or the possibility to change the default keyboard.

An application like Tasker would be a killer app for me on iOS

Dude thank you for repeating what I had already conceded and asked - are there killer apps/functions/utility so significant that I am missing it and would provoke someone to write a page long paragraph about why Android is so good

And I mentioned the areas (e.g. customisation) that I wasn't interested in so that someone didn't waste their time telling me how customisable Android is

To your point - tasker looks cool but doesn't seem to have anything that I can't do or want to. BUT that's just me, and I accept there may be something cool out there I am missing. I'm simply saying, so far the biggest thing people mention is customisation (don't care) and ability to run apps outside the App Store (again it's not something of big interest to me)

 

[Oletros]

Dude thank you for repeating what I had already conceded and asked - are there killer apps/functions/utility so significant that I am missing it and would provoke someone to write a page long paragraph about why Android is so good

And I mentioned the areas (e.g. customisation) that I wasn't interested in so that someone didn't waste their time telling me how customisable Android is

To your point - tasker looks cool but doesn't seem to have anything that I can't do or want to. BUT that's just me, and I accept there may be something cool out there I am missing. I'm simply saying, so far the biggest thing people mention is customisation (don't care) and ability to run apps outside the App Store (again it's not something of big interest to me)

For you installing apps is customization?

I suppose you even don't order the icons on your phone, do you?

And no, changing the keyboard is not customization and broadcast receivers and intents are not customization

Dude thank you for repeating what I had already conceded and asked - are there killer apps/functions/utility so significant that I am missing it and would provoke someone to write a page long paragraph about why Android is so good

And I mentioned the areas (e.g. customisation) that I wasn't interested in so that someone didn't waste their time telling me how customisable Android is

To your point - tasker looks cool but doesn't seem to have anything that I can't do or want to. BUT that's just me, and I accept there may be something cool out there I am missing. I'm simply saying, so far the biggest thing people mention is customisation (don't care) and ability to run apps outside the App Store (again it's not something of big interest to me)

 

[Max(IT)]

Why does MacRumors never have worldwide statistics? These US only stats are pretty useless in my opinion.

No .... They are useful but I know you don't like those statistics
This is the demonstration of how silly are "Apple vs Android" statistics ...
If you look at Apple vs Androids you could have the impression Google is winning, but looking at the comparison with the best Apple's competitors, Samsung, the picture is very different ...

 

[Max(IT)]

I had no idea that "Android" was one company, I mean what benefit would be there to break down OS my manufacturer to get a real idea of what the market looks like?

This.
Apple in US has a huge advantage over the first competitor, Samsung, but fandroids don't like to hear that and now are crying about "worldwide statistics", knowing that some markets are literally flooded by crappy cheap android phones ....

 

[winston1236]

wow I thought apple had more share US, I guess not

 

[dec.]

I had no idea that "Android" was one company, I mean what benefit would be there to break down OS my manufacturer to get a real idea of what the market looks like?

I agree. Just going by the recent rumors and numbers, I'm not sure how happy a company like HTC is about being "market leader"...

 

[chagla]

....

I don't care about customization, and yet to find an App that my Android using friends and family have that I don't, so what am I missing

I'm really interested to learn

i was going to cite some specific examples but then i saw your post below:

...
To your point - tasker looks cool but doesn't seem to have anything that I can't do or want to. BUT that's just me, and I accept there may be something cool out there I am missing. I'm simply saying, so far the biggest thing people mention is customisation (don't care) and ability to run apps outside the App Store (again it's not something of big interest to me)

when you say things like - i don't need this on my phone, i don't care about this functionality etc, then it really doesn't matter what Android can offer you. because at the end you will simply repeat saying you dont' need such and such functions.

its okay to be happy with ios/apple but some users may want to do more on their device and for them android suits better. it offers flexibility and power.

 

[Dirtfarmer]

I had no idea that "Android" was one company, I mean what benefit would be there to break down OS my manufacturer to get a real idea of what the market looks like?

Companies come and go.

Platform is where the competition is.

The iOS platform is losing ground to the alternative. But Macrumors does nothing but tell us how iOS is gaining.

They are misleading you!

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