iOS Adoption Remains at Lowest Levels Since 2014 as Android Captures Record 87.5% Market Share

[djgamble]

It's stagnant, and people thinking that 'IF ONLY THEY WOULD RELEASE A DECENT MAC LINE!' are foolish. Microsoft is the dominate player, and it would take a huge, huge, huge, shift to get companies to use MacOS over Windows. Apple is trying it, but that's not the low hanging fruit. The low hanging fruit is developing markets.

Well said. I think most people online are either kids or work for small/medium-sized companies so they don't quite get how much effort it takes for a global company with 10,000+ employees (and even more computers + in-house systems...etc) to upgrade from say Windows 7 to Windows 10.

I work for a place that employs 30,000+ employees globally and develops a heap of in-house solutions. Moving our computers over to Apple would be a nightmare (we only juat upgraded from XP to 7 and that was a MASSIVE headache for everybody).

Unless you REALLY need to change your OS, IMO it's not worth the stress.

 

[shansoft]

Sorry, but this is just nonsense.

While previous Galaxies were plagued with issues, the S7 Edge, which I use as my daily driver (over my company iPhone 6+, which is getting replaced with a 7+) is better than the iPhone. It has a better camera, the UI is more intuitive, the battery life is better....

It's a bit like a Windows user bringing up Mac OS 7 to prove how great Windows 10 is.

None sense? Look at the any other website who did a long term review all said the same thing as I did.

Who is speaking none sense here?

It's not about Windows vs Mac. It's the fact that matters. And the fact is, Samsung still blows with TouchWiz, even the rebranded GraceUX still sucks, slow, and sluggish.

Better Camera? If you only post your photo on FB, sure, it seems better since majority of people prefer over-saturated color + over-sharpening image, and think it's great.

And UI/UX is intuitive on Android / Samsung? ... What!?

 

[x0vash0x]

Both google and apple are raping the phone market right now with a duopoly that is starting to hurt consumers in one way or another on both platforms.

This is not a duopoly. Android and iOS are operating systems. Like I said in a previous post, look at the market share by devices sold: http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-market-share.jsp

This is the definition of oligopoly. And look at the 'others' category. The low-end phone market is completely and utterly saturated with low-quality and low-priced options. There's zero differentiation other than price. There's absolutely no need for Apple to get involved in this market since theres no profit in it. It's a race to the bottom, which Apple has said themselves.

The only reason Samsung and Apple have been able to become dominate players is through differentiation. Apple through iOS and Samsung though unique designs.

 

[macUser2007]

None sense? Look at the any other website who did a long term review all said the same thing as I did.
...
Better Camera? If you only post your photo on FB, sure, it seems better since majority of people prefer over-saturated color + over-sharpening image, and think it's great....

Yep, the iPhone has not had the best camera compared to other phones since the iPhone 6 Plus, when DXOMark proclaimed it the best.

But here are the current DXOMark rankings and tests (the Google Pixels, made by HTC, take the crown nowadays):

https://www.dxomark.com/Mobiles

The iPhone 7 didn't make it on par with some of the Android end-of-model flagships.... Another reason why I don't use my iPhone when I go out at night: the S7 Edge takes much better low light shots.

You should poke your head out of the cocoon. Cheers!

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

That's not growth, replacement but the nature of it, is maintaining sales. If they bring more people back with a new phone version, that's growth based on new clients, which is what Apple needs.

You're choosing to define things outside of how the market and everyone else (including Apple) defines them.

When Apple sells 10 million new iPhones, do they report new customers vs upgrade? No. Is that reported as separate growth vs existing replacements? No.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if people are upgrading or just coming to the platform, it's all money in Apple's pocket and reported a such.

Split hairs all you want and call it whatever you like. It really doesn't matter.

 

[_manoloruiz_]

When comparing iOS and Android's market share most people are blinded by numbers and fail to notice that iOS is offered by just one company but Android is offered by countless phone makers... So it is practically impossible for Apple alone to take on most of the market share when they are competing against any and every other company in the world.

It'd be more accurate to compare Apple devices share against Google devices or Samsung devices instead of just iOS vs. Android.

 

[Tjex]

You're choosing to define things outside of how the market and everyone else (including Apple) defines them.

When Apple sells 10 million new iPhones, do they report new customers vs upgrade? No. Is that reported as separate growth vs existing replacements? No.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if people are upgrading or just coming to the platform, it's all money in Apple's pocket and reported a such.

Split hairs all you want and call it whatever you like. It really doesn't matter.

It's basic economic, not making anything up.

Growth = more than before

You can get growth in many ways, but substained sales is not one when you've practically exhausted your economies of scale.

 

[bladerunner2000]

That's what happens when you neuter your phone without a headphone jack and then disrespect consumers even more by substituting it with a lightning port (instead of USB-C) that the industry doesn't use.

Things will get worse now that you can't even connect the new iPhone to the new MacBook.

Christ, Apple really needs to fire a lot of people, starting at the top.

 

[smacrumon]

Apple's marketing and sales management are complete idiots. If they just lowered the cost of the iPhone by $200, they'd attract a lot more customers who can't make that jump currently. Then once the customers are in and on iOS, they'll stay for very long time.

Stupid greedy management at Apple, what are they thinking????? Excessive price killed the original Macintosh. Did Apple ever really learn from that lesson?

Price aggressive and go for volume. It's the mantra of App Store apps, it should be considered more seriously for the devices as well.

 

[x0vash0x]

It's basic economic, not making anything up.

Growth = more than before

You can get growth in many ways, but substained sales is not one when you've practically exhausted your economies of scale.

It's revenue growth. You may not grow production, but you're growing revenue. That's the point: replacement vs. new customers are counted as revenue. The only thing that matters is whether revenue is larger or smaller than the previous year. You can see this with the iPad Pro. Apple actually sold FEWER total units of iPads but saw revenue growth. From a financial standpoint, this is actually good and is considered growth.

You may disagree whether this is actually growth, but when doing financial statement analysis, you're looking at money, not number of units shipped. If you were issuing an investor guidance note, then you could mention this saying something like "Revenue growth was accompanied by a decrease in overall sales volume but was made up for with an higher average sale price". But regardless, in the financial world, its considered growth.

 

[0098386]

I mean, it would be nice if Apple made a cheap device. It makes sense to do so, because those developing countries want to make software too and their main platform (as it were) is going to be Android. Above Windows, iOS, Mac OS, they will focus on Android because that's whats available to them. So I think the next few years will be very interesting.

 

[Mxbzz]

None sense? Look at the any other website who did a long term review all said the same thing as I did.

Who is speaking none sense here?

It's not about Windows vs Mac. It's the fact that matters. And the fact is, Samsung still blows with TouchWiz, even the rebranded GraceUX still sucks, slow, and sluggish.

Better Camera? If you only post your photo on FB, sure, it seems better since majority of people prefer over-saturated color + over-sharpening image, and think it's great.

And UI/UX is intuitive on Android / Samsung? ... What!?

There are a ton of things to dislike the S7 for, but the fact that you said the camera and autofocus was rubbish leaves me to think you either had a dud, or never had an S7 to begin with. As a current iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7 Edge owner, I can attest that the AF on the Edge is very accurate and LASER fast. With all the talk about Samsung phones slowing down after a few months, the camera is just as quick as it was on day one.
The ability to have manual settings on the S7 is icing on the cake.

So... you even mentioned if a majority of people like the image quality off the S7, it doesn't make it a better camera? Okay then.

 

[Luscious]

" .... reflecting the period between late June and late September."

Gee, what about this particular period in time just might make it the worst quarter of the year for iPhone sales almost every year?

Anybody with a brain knows new iPhones come out in September so if you want an iPhone and you have a clue you aren't buying one until the latest models are released in September because you either want the latest device or are fine with an older model but want the price break for older models that come along when the latest models are released.

Further, even after the new models gets released in September there are always supply constraints on some of them so you might hold off on buying one until the specific model you want is readily available. Not everybody enjoys placing an online order and having to shell out for a device weeks ahead of when you can expect to actually get one.

On top of that many don't want to buy an iPhone outright and pay the entire cost of a new device up front so they are involved in one of the various trade-in/trade-up programs that are out there. Most of those require that you've paid a certain amount toward the device you have before you are eligible to turn your current device in to upgrade to a new one so many of those users won't upgrade as soon as new models are released either and instead will make additional payments and upgrade at a later date.

Then there's the downside of being an early adopter. If you rush out to buy the latest and greatest and there is some flaw that isn't big enough to cause the manufacturer to issue a recall you might be SOL.

 

[Born Again]

Most of the world is poor, so this makes sense.

Apple never tried to be the most accessible by price.

You sound elitist

I hope you're not going to compare an iPhone to a Ferrari next lol

Thw iphone is not luxury - when someone who is lower middle class like yourself can buy one then it's definitely not luxury

 

[LovingTeddy]

In other news, Android profitability remains at an all time zero with so many OEMS being suckered into a vision of bankruptcy with only Google to gain from it all.

When you go shopping for mortgage, do you go for the one offer highest rate, because maybe that bank has highest profit?

When I shopping for a phone that is disposable after few year, I hardly care if that OEM make money or not. Wether Apple makes money or not is irrelevant to me and most consumer. Consumers are smart and they are seeing iPhone is biggest rip off.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Agreed that Apple makes more total revenue and profit on equipment sales but future earnings growth is in services and for that market share is more important.

Not if people are unwilling to pay for the services. Apple users are willing to pay for service. For all the Android users there are no one is paying for the services. It's mostly freeloaders latching on.

 

[brandon0409]

Well this is a simple explanation...
I updated to iOS 10. Then after 3 day downgraded back to iOS 9.
Why? Because iOS 10 is not compatible with my computer. I'm stuck at OSX 10.7.5. Hence cannot update to the newest iTunes, which is required to interact with iOS 10.
Also the computer will not even recognize my iPhone as even being connected. And I didn't know this until I upgraded. After I upgraded I did the research as to why I could not connect my phone and learned of these problems.
It's complete garbage.

And I'm not the only person this is a problem for. Many of my friends are having the same problem.

 

[DevNull0]

Do they? I've been to third world countries. I must've missed all the "lower priced" Range Rovers and Bentleys.

Seriously? You certainly have missed out on a lot. Next time check your facts.

Bentley is Volkswagon, they make plenty of low cost cars.

Range Rover is Tata Motors. An Indian company well known for making some of the cheapest cars in the world.

 

[BangTheDish]

Very happy with my Google Pixel XL and Project Fi as the carrier. Fantastic camera with basically unlimited highest quality online storage for free. Phone is as intuitive as an iPhone, and fingerprint reader is fast. Dropping my overlapping iPhone at the end of next month. Sorry Apple - I'm slipping away, first with phone, next with laptop.

 

[wigby]

And yet I hardly ever see anyone using anything other than an iPhone/iPad. These research numbers seem inverted.

These stats are worldwide and also on a downtick just before holidays. Apple will jump back up to ~20% after holidays. The sell through cycles are as predictable as these ****** analytics reports.

 

[timrichardson]

In other news, Android profitability remains at an all time zero with so many OEMS being suckered into a vision of bankruptcy with only Google to gain from it all.

It's getting harder and harder to believe there is zero profit in making Android phones, because we've been hearing it for five years. Android volumes keep increasing. It could be that the wild guesses and speculations behind phone maker profit are wrong.
[doublepost=1478142782][/doublepost]

These stats are worldwide and also on a downtick just before holidays. Apple will jump back up to ~20% after holidays. The sell through cycles are as predictable as these ****** analytics reports.

We'll see. These are global figures, and the holiday season you talk about is more of a Western season. So if the global market share is to surge back to 20%, it will have to be on the back of European and US sales, which gets a harder and harder task (I imagine).

 

[Sedulous]

Very happy with my Google Pixel XL and Project Fi as the carrier. Fantastic camera with basically unlimited highest quality online storage for free. Phone is as intuitive as an iPhone, and fingerprint reader is fast. Dropping my overlapping iPhone at the end of next month. Sorry Apple - I'm slipping away, first with phone, next with laptop.

I agree that Apple's cloud services are exceedingly stingy and that doesn't exactly improve the "experience".

 

[PBRsg]

With saturated phone markets I don't understand Apples hesitation to create a lower priced, but quality phone. Don't just offer last year's phone for cheap, actually produce an entry level phone for the ecosystem. Every luxury automaker does the same without diluting their brand.[/QUOTE

Wow.. history is repeating itself, Apple being ultra greedy and losing vision and marketshare like in the late 90s, rival OS reaching 90% marketshare.

New Apple dark ages approaching?

With the exception of perhaps the iPod, Apple products have never been aimed at the mass market.

 

[C DM]

Apple's marketing and sales management are complete idiots. If they just lowered the cost of the iPhone by $200, they'd attract a lot more customers who can't make that jump currently. Then once the customers are in and on iOS, they'll stay for very long time.

Stupid greedy management at Apple, what are they thinking????? Excessive price killed the original Macintosh. Did Apple ever really learn from that lesson?

Price aggressive and go for volume. It's the mantra of App Store apps, it should be considered more seriously for the devices as well.

That's exactly the kind of thing that made Apple Apple.

 

[BootsWalking]

Not if people are unwilling to pay for the services. Apple users are willing to pay for service. For all the Android users there are no one is paying for the services. It's mostly freeloaders latching on.

Really, none of the 1.5 billion Android users are paying for services?