iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Boost Apple's Customer Base in Europe, but Market Share Slightly Down in U.S.

[hppy29]

We don't know what is going on in the background and that hasn't yet been announced. In addition the things that you mention are dependent on many complicated contract structures. I too wish Apple would be faster with this, but something tells me record and film studio bosses are slowing this down.

Look at the DVD market. We are still plagues by this nonsense region coding stuff that doesn't make sense anymore at all.

Thats pants! iTunes Radio has been out over a year and not even a word about any further roll out plans.

Apple Pay, Europe has been using contactless payments for years along with Canada. Using countries that already have the infrastructure already would have pushed US retailers to keep up

Apple TV, has had very little update in the way of content for Europe.. even any pointless channels like they have in the USA.

These three things alone, would make people buy more Apple iPhone/iPads along with other products in Europe.

 

[gnasher729]

That's why I put it in quotes, switch it for any flagship smartphone, outside the US (where the price includes taxes, VAT), the only "smartphones" you get for $100 and under are android knock offs with 256/512 RAM, they are not really in the same market as an iPhone/Galaxy/M8 whatever you want to call it.

They are not smartphones, they're barely feature phones, have you held one of these?

They are counted as smartphones in this statistics.

 

[dannyyankou]

I'm more anxious to see market share data comparing individual handsets.

 

[TC03]

As usual, they publish the market share in smartphone units. That is, they don't cover either the high end smartphone market, which is where Apple is playing, and they don't cover the whole phone market, which isn't skewed by the fact that people switch from cheap feature phones to cheap smartphones.

These numbers also count a $600 phone exactly the same as a $100 phone. Personally, I'd rather sell x phones for $600 each than 2x or 3x phones for $100 each.

You are over-thinking this. You are a 100% correct, but this kind of reasoning is irrelevant. The chart simply states market share. What you are doing, is explaining why the market share is lower than Android.

Of course you'd rather sell 1 $1000 iPhone (remember, things are more expensive in Europa) than 5 $200 phones, but then you are talking profit share rather than market share. Profit share is interesting, but that's not this chart is about.

 

[gnasher729]

In the UK you can get a pay as you go Android handset for £20 that runs KitKat ... its the LG L20

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/phones/lg-l20/ppay?colourCode=WHITEBLUE

and it will sell very well being so cheap, and others are available from not much more outlay as well

So if I buy an LG L20 for £19.95, to put in the glove compartment of my car for emergencies (which I think is a sensible thing to do in case you ever get stuck and need a phone and may have forgotten your real phone), and I buy an iPhone 6+ with 128 GB for lots of money, that counts as one phone for LG, and one phone for Apple.

Or if you are a visitor from a foreign country, don't want to take any risks with roaming charges, and just buy an LG L20 that you throw away after your holiday, that counts as one phone for LG.

 

[4jasontv]

Most people buy phones from the phone company, and what the salespeople at the phone company recommend carries a lot of weight. What they push entirely relies on the incentives the manufacturer gives the company.

In the US, Apple provides great incentives. In Europe - much less so. I guess the local Nokia sales office in Italy does good work. Following the Microsoft acquisition, I'm guessing they'll lose their edge, but that remains to be seen.

In the US sales people are rarely offered incentive for a device directly. They are paid for the feature code added, changed, or renewed on the account. So depending upon how the carrier system is set up the behavior that is encouraged can be different. Generally you want to move someone from one platform to another when they upgrade. If you work in a high traffic location it may be worth it to keep them on the same platform. In these cases it may be less compensated, but the transaction time is significantly reduced. Alternatively you may encourage keeping the same platform if you believe it will assist in persuading them to use their old device as another device on their account.

 

[TC03]

Apple usually quote market share in terms of 'usage' - perhaps reflecting that there may be many more (cheap) android phones out there, but they're not being used!

A better explenation would be that iPhones have a longer life cycle than Androids. So while market share may be low for iOS, installed base share may be relatively higher.

 

[gnasher729]

You are over-thinking this. You are a 100% correct, but this kind of reasoning is irrelevant. The chart simply states market share. What you are doing, is explaining why the market share is lower than Android.

Of course you'd rather sell 1 $1000 iPhone (remember, things are more expensive in Europa) than 5 $200 phones, but then you are talking profit share rather than market share. Profit share is interesting, but that's not this chart is about.

No, no, no. It doesn't state "market share". It states one very specific market share: Units sold in the smartphone market. There are many different market shares that for some reason we never see mentioned. "Profit share in the phone market" is also a market share, just a different one, and because it is so absolutely unbelievably high for Apple, it isn't reported very often. (The last one I saw was Apple 80%, Samsung 33%, and the rest -13% because they were losing money; that's before Samsung's sales and profits dropped through the floor).

 

[KALLT]

You are over-thinking this. You are a 100% correct, but this kind of reasoning is irrelevant. The chart simply states market share. What you are doing, is explaining why the market share is lower than Android.

Of course you'd rather sell 1 $1000 iPhone (remember, things are more expensive in Europa) than 5 $200 phones, but then you are talking profit share rather than market share. Profit share is interesting, but that's not this chart is about.

Not to mention that market share may be a very important factor for the future of the platform. With these huge differences especially in Europe, one wonders whether European developers will remain interested in iOS development. Profit share is only interesting for Apple’s shareholders, but not necessarily us users.

 

[TC03]

Most people buy phones from the phone company, and what the salespeople at the phone company recommend carries a lot of weight. What they push entirely relies on the incentives the manufacturer gives the company.

In the US, Apple provides great incentives. In Europe - much less so. I guess the local Nokia sales office in Italy does good work. Following the Microsoft acquisition, I'm guessing they'll lose their edge, but that remains to be seen.

You're oblivious to the fact that a Lumia costs about $200 and an iPhone about $1000 in Italy. Italian carriers do not offer subsidies.

So, bottom line:
- Italian market isn't subsudized
- iPhones are 5x more expensive than Lumias

The interesting thing is not the low market share for iOS but rather the low market share for Android, since Lumias compete directly with Android devices.

 

[Tubamajuba]

Why would they want an iPhone, they're nothing special, especially compared to more expensive Android phones, I wouldn't want people to think I have an iPhone, I like to be a bit different to the herd mentality.

You care about people thinking you have an iPhone, and yet you post on an Apple forum.

That's just as bad as the people that want others to know they have an iPhone. You're defining yourself by your choice of device just like they are.

 

[Belly-laughs]

It's almost half of Androids share and dropping…

…I like to be a bit different to the herd mentality.

seems you might just be doing the opposite of what you like.

 

[BCWorld]

I like my 6 but I sure do miss and I loved my 5s. ##

 

[TC03]

No, no, no. It doesn't state "market share". It states one very specific market share: Units sold in the smartphone market. There are many different market shares that for some reason we never see mentioned. "Profit share in the phone market" is also a market share, just a different one, and because it is so absolutely unbelievably high for Apple, it isn't reported very often. (The last one I saw was Apple 80%, Samsung 33%, and the rest -13% because they were losing money; that's before Samsung's sales and profits dropped through the floor).

'Smartphone market share in units' is more telling because it paints the an accurate picture: out of every 10 customers, 3 walk out with an iPhone (UK, US). That's telling, it describes Apples position in the market. Profit share does too, but more implicitely.

 

[pappy53]

Comscore shows Apple market share around 42% in the U.S. Why the discrepancy?

 

[RockSpider]

seems you might just be doing the opposite of what you like.

Well I bought the HTC One M8, not a very big selling phone, but I love it. Just the voice commands are so much better than Siri, I turned Siri off on my iPad, it's almost a joke.
I even use it as a remote for all my home theatre equipment, and use it as a mouse and keyboard for my computer attached to my TV.

 

[mdlooker]

Why aren't there statistics of comparable mobile phone lines. Apples to Apples (no pun intended)

 

[MasterRyu2011]

You care about people thinking you have an iPhone, and yet you post on an Apple forum.

That's just as bad as the people that want others to know they have an iPhone. You're defining yourself by your choice of device just like they are.

What's wrong with posting on an Apple forum but not owning an iPhone? This is macrumors not iPhone rumors. Some people do have Macs, ipods, ipads, and Apple TV, none of which are iPhones. Even then, for those who are legitimately excited about all kinds of tech news, Macrumors is a wonderful source for all things Apple --- whether you own the devices doesn't matter.

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I'm quite shocked that iOS is not beating out Android in the U.S. Isn't it well known that Apple dominates the US??

 

[JHankwitz]

Yet another long post on market share. The only thing I care about as a customer is that I'm getting valued product that fulfills my needs, and that the supplier is able to stay in business to continue providing me with ever improving products. Everything else is just fodder for the masses.

 

[peterdevries]

'Smartphone market share in units' is more telling because it paints the an accurate picture: out of every 10 customers, 3 walk out with an iPhone (UK, US). That's telling, it describes Apples position in the market.

I agree with Gnasher, your view is not completely correct either. Apple targets a very specific customer segment and ignores the rest. In order to determine Apple's success in the market, we need to look specifically at the segment where Apple and Android overlap.

Of course 7 out of 10 consumers buy an Android phone, but I would be interested to see how this would look if you would look at the flagship phone category (HTC one, Galaxy S, Nexus vs iPhone).

I hate car analogies but here it works: Ferarri's market share is very low globally and a comparison is irrelevant if you also include cars that cost less than $10.000. To understand Ferarri's power in the market you need to look at Lamborghini, Koenigsegg etc..

 

[TC03]

Yet another long post on market share. The only thing I care about as a customer is that I'm getting valued product that fulfills my needs, and that the supplier is able to stay in business to continue providing me with ever improving products. Everything else is just fodder for the masses.

Not really. A huge part of the value of a smartphone comes from the App Store, and the quality of the App Store (in a broad sense) is determined by the effort developers are willing to make. That effort is very much dependent on the addressable market, for which unit market share of sales is one of the relevant metrics.

 

[SirLance99]

Must every thread be hijacked by Andriod fanboies that actually wish they could afford an iPhone?

Although I agree some people are talking crap about iPhones compared to Android phones. Not all Android phones are cheap.

The Note 4 I bought cost MORE THAN the iPhone 6 Plus I bought. Furthermore, the Nexus 6 I'm buying today cost the SAME as a iPhone. So stop it with Android phones are cheap. They are not. Some yes but not like for like.

 

[KdParker]

Huge discounts given out by MS on already cheap mid-tier- and low-end-phones. Skewed the numbers over the course of two quarters.

That is something that windows Phone should do in the states.

Once they get the phones in peoples hands people will start to see them as a viable option to android.

 

[RoccoFan]

I think Apple's marketshare is too low for Apple Pay to take off. If their strategy is to force the market to come to them, I think they're in for a rude awakening on the payment front. But, if they can come out with a relatively inexpensive payment "only" device, they'll clean up. Think TouchID iPod nano.

 

[lowendlinux]

Must every thread be hijacked by Andriod fanboies that actually wish they could afford an iPhone?

You have no idea why folks buy Android. Secondly this forum is about far more than Apple mobile it's entirely possible to use Android phone and a Mac.

Well I bought the HTC One M8, not a very big selling phone, but I love it. Just the voice commands are so much better than Siri, I turned Siri off on my iPad, it's almost a joke.
I even use it as a remote for all my home theatre equipment, and use it as a mouse and keyboard for my computer attached to my TV.

The One is one of the most popular Android phones out there. If you wanted to be different you could buy a Jolla or a firefox phone, they're at least completely open source and not a Google hodgepodge.