iOS Grew to Capture 42% of U.S. Smartphone Market Over Holidays

[MacRumors]

From November 2016 through January 2017, iOS devices accounted for 42 percent of smartphone sales in the United States, growing 2.9 percentage points year-over-year thanks to iPhone sales over the holidays. According to new data released by Kantar Worldpanel, the same period saw a decline for Android smartphones, which still captured the largest share of the market at 56.4 percent in the United States, but was down 1.8 percentage points from the same three month period last year.

A similar growth for iOS and decline for Android -- likely due to the Note7 -- was noted by Kantar in a report focusing on OS market shares ahead of the holiday season. In today's findings, Kantar noted that as iOS and Android continue to battle it out in every market, "no other ecosystem is challenging the two giants." Some re-emerging brands catalyzed nostalgic spending for consumers -- including the Nokia 3310 and BlackBerry KEYone -- but their reliance on Android's OS instead of their own legacy OS helped boost Android's market shares.

Gone are the days when a BlackBerry OS, Symbian, or Windows Mobile could make a significant impact. It is clear that there will only be two smartphone ecosystems moving forward - iOS and Android. To succeed, phone manufacturers will have to play by those rulebooks.

Kantar noted that the iPhone 7 continues to be a top seller in large markets, particularly in Great Britain, France, and Germany. In total, iOS made gains across most regions excluding Japan, Spain, and China. In China specifically, iOS saw its largest year-over-year decline of 8.4 percentage points, knocking its market share down to 16.6 percent below Android's 83.2 percent. Kantar noted that while the iPhone 7 is the top-selling smartphone in China as well, increased competition from local vendors Oppo and Vivo contribute to Apple's continued yearly declines in the country.

iOS saw its biggest growth in the three months ending January 2017 in France, increasing 4.9 percentage points year-over-year to capture 24.2 of the smartphone OS market share in the country. In all of Europe's five big markets -- Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain -- iOS had a 22.7 percent market share, an increase of 2.4 percentage points from the same period last year. Like in the U.S., Android remains dominant in Europe at 74.3 percent of the smartphone market.

A redesigned "iPhone 8" will help boost Apple's share of the market when it launches later this year, although recent rumors suggest that the tenth anniversary iPhone might launch much later than more iterative 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch "iPhone 7s" devices in September. When it does, the all-new iPhone is predicted to include an edge-to-edge OLED display, lack a traditional Home Button, and potentially have wireless charging capabilities.

Article Link: iOS Grew to Capture 42% of U.S. Smartphone Market Over Holidays

 

[brendu]

Just wow. So much money. Apple better be using it to create an amazing future.

 

[LordVic]

looks like a great quarter for both android and iOS. they both took advantage of the demise of Windows phone.

 

[kemal]

It would be interesting to study those who purchase Windows phones. Never mind. Microsoft employees.

 

[LordVic]

It would be interesting to study those who purchase Windows phones. Never mind. Microsoft employees.

I wouldn't say that. Microsoft's OS looked extremely promising, and from my tests from demo's, it was actually one of the nicest OS's to use. I much preffered it's styling over Android and iOS.

The problem wasn't the actual OS, or even the hardware. it was the 3 different versions Microsoft tried before finally settling on the last version. And each time software was incompatible. no old devices got upgrades (twice in a row!) and then developers walked away when they constantly had to re-write apps. at the end of the day, Windows Phone OS was great, there were just nothing to do on the device. none of your banking apps were there, none of your favourite social media had good apps. unless you were knee deep in Microsoft's ecosystem already, there was nothing to actually play or run on the Windows Phone

it's unfortunate, because I would have loved to see the Smartphone industry be a 4 player game and have some real good stiff competition. Both BB10 and Windows Phone actually brought some significant improvements to the smartphone world

 

[djcerla]

"Good enough" doom&gloom theorists completely proven wrong.

History of the 90's is definitely not repeating.

 

[esk]

Am I the only one who is absolutely not interested in iOS or Android devices. I wish apple would invest more time and money in their mac line

 

[Glideslope]

Am I the only one who is absolutely not interested in iOS or Android devices. I wish apple would invest more time and money in their mac line

You are not alone.

 

[skinned66]

Am I the only one who is absolutely not interested in iOS or Android devices. I wish apple would invest more time and money in their mac line

I'm interested in iOS and Android devices but yes, I too would like them to do that.

 

[497902]

I'm wondering why English speaking countries seem to have the most iPhone users?

 

[brianvictor7]

DOOM! DOOM I TELL YOU!!! Apple makes good stuff. What else can I say?

 

[LordVic]

I'm interested in iOS and Android devices but yes, I too would like them to do that.

I mostly agree. But i'm old school computer guy. For me the phone / tablet compliments my computer usage, and not the other way around

Unfortunately for us old dogs, Apple is going after the money, not after their own legacy. That means iOS since iOS is their big money maker with the iPhone and iPad making up over 80% of their revenues.

Unfortauntely, Apple's executive have shown little care, or little ability to understand the current PC market and have seemingly walked back from it, even though the PC industry was where they focused for 80% of their time in existence.

this is just life, and unfortunately, my next laptop won't be an Apple product because of their inability to understand the PC industry anymore. Which saddens me, because the MacBook air was my favourite laptop I've owned.

 

[RogerWilco]

Yes, using purchasing behavior in the U.S. market with ~ 4% of the world's population, is a good way to predict sales in the rest of the world. Thinner Jonny, make it thinner.

 

[Avieshek]

Samsung OS, somewhere in the future.

 

[elvislives]

I'm wondering why English speaking countries seem to have the most iPhone users?

err Japan?

 

[BlandUsername]

I'm wondering why English speaking countries seem to have the most iPhone users?

Economics, Disparate levels of Apple support, Marketing, Product availability, lots of reasons.

 

[Stella]

Meanwhile, iOS is being trounced by Android.

 

[69Mustang]

Samsung OS, somewhere in the future.

Ha! Tizen. Works for their watches, not so much on phones. It suffers from the same problems @LordVic mentioned about Windows: lack of app ecosystem. No apps, no sale.

 

[BlandUsername]

err Japan?

Lots of Ex-pat's in US for Manufacturing here, Filters back there.

 

[doelcm82]

'Gone are the days when a BlackBerry OS, Symbian, or Windows Mobile could make a significant impact. It is clear that there will only be two smartphone ecosystems moving forward - iOS and Android. To succeed, phone manufacturers will have to play by those rulebooks.'

Strange quote! It would seem that manufacturers have a single rulebook. For Apple, it's iOS. For everyone else, Android.

 

[bollman]

It would be interesting to study those who purchase Windows phones. Never mind. Microsoft employees.

Me! I even got shafted twice, both my Lumia 800 and 925 never got updates, so, now when Windows Mobile is dead, I got a sweet deal on a Lumia 650 dual SIM, great phone, except maybe the camera which could be better. I bought the phone, screen protector and wallet case all for $160 unlocked, no contract. I have no interest in a giant iPhone with no upgradeability and only one SIM slot for $1000. Android is no option, it sux.

My essential banking apps have recently been updated for Windows 10, Exchange integration is great, Edge is good enough.
The Windows Mobile UI is by far the best and it's no fault but MS themselves that this great platform is no more. BUT, I assume MS will be releasing a Surface Phone, I cannot see MS leaving the most lucrative hardware business on the planet while obviously putting more effort into hardware. I have the money, they just have to show me the hardware.

 

[needsomecoffee]

The nearly 8.4pt decline in China should worry investors. Tim put a lot of time and personal energy into securing a good foothold in this market. I sincerely doubt the market share trend currently is making him happy. Investors should note that the steps/effort Tim put into China are now shifting to India. These are big bets, but as we see in China Apple has some significant disadvantages as a U.S.-based company.

 

[Vege-Taco]

Android use seems to be directly proportional to how socialistic the society is. Hmmmmm.

 

[oneMadRssn]

I wouldn't say that. Microsoft's OS looked extremely promising, and from my tests from demo's, it was actually one of the nicest OS's to use. I much preffered it's styling over Android and iOS.

The problem wasn't the actual OS, or even the hardware. it was the 3 different versions Microsoft tried before finally settling on the last version. And each time software was incompatible. no old devices got upgrades (twice in a row!) and then developers walked away when they constantly had to re-write apps. at the end of the day, Windows Phone OS was great, there were just nothing to do on the device. none of your banking apps were there, none of your favourite social media had good apps. unless you were knee deep in Microsoft's ecosystem already, there was nothing to actually play or run on the Windows Phone

it's unfortunate, because I would have loved to see the Smartphone industry be a 4 player game and have some real good stiff competition. Both BB10 and Windows Phone actually brought some significant improvements to the smartphone world

I agree completely. I jumped ship after it was clear that my Windows Phone 7 phone would not be updated at all. Like Android, the updates were super slow to come out depending on the OEM.

If I was in charge at Microsoft, I would spend a lot of money paying developers to port their apps. For example, if you're a developer with a top 50 app on iOS, you get $100,000 for porting it to Windows 10 Mobile and keeping it up to date with feature parity to iOS for 2 years (paid 50% after year 1, 50% after year 2). Top 50-100, $75,000. Top 100-200, $50,000. If your ranking in the top changes during the two year period, you get the benefit of the highest rank held for any consecutive 45 day period. Any other app with over 1,000 active users on iOS can get a similar but smaller bounty.

Cost of doing this, approximately, would be $15million to Microsoft. They spend that much on ineffective marketing campaigns all the time. It's not nothing, but it would be totally worth it to have all the top apps available on Windows 10 Mobile, feature for feature. Consumers today buy phones based on apps primarily.

 

[lkrupp]

"Good enough" doom&gloom theorists completely proven wrong.

History of the 90's is definitely not repeating.

Absolutely correct. From the dawn of the iPhone analysts have predicted the same fate for Apple in the PC ‘wars’. Market share would triumph, developers would flee to the platform with the biggest market share. ‘Open’ would defeat the walled garden. It is now perfectly clear that market share has no relevance in the smartphone universe. Developers did not flee to Android, Android OEMs are barely making any money. The only company actually profiting from Android is Google in that data mining for it’s advertising business is tremendous. So the next time one of the Android lovers that infest MacRumors spews the ‘Android FTW’ meme just smile and remember it doesn’t mean a thing.