iPhone Drops to 15% Market Share as Smartphone Market Goes Flat

[American Hero]

Agreed, you need to compare high end smart phones from the different companies for an accurate market share analysis.

The argument can be made with Apple too. The 5SE, 5S, etc are all still counted in Apple's market share and are technically considered "lower end" phones today. So if you're going to count out Samsung's lower end phones, you have to only go by what Apple's numbers for the current flagship products are.

 

[lenard]

The iPhone 3G was $199 on launch. No one was suggesting that was an inferior product! It was an insanely popular product.

That was the tech in those days...if apple made a phone like that today..it would be front page BAD NEWS in every
paper blog and website..actually it was not $199, that was a subsidiesd price and the contract make up for the
difference over two years...

 

[AVEGA]

So 84% of people using cell phones are NOT on iOS.

 

[69Mustang]

I would really like to see market share for phones purchased by users that use them as a smartphone. For example, downloading at least two third-party apps might be an indicator; or setting up their work email might be an indicator. Exclude those phones that aren't used as a smartphone.

I think there is a large number of very inexpensive android phones out there that have pretty much replaced the feature phones, and those inexpensive smartphones are still being used like feature phones (calls and texting only). I think it is misleading to include those in the smartphone market share. Smartphones are about apps, and if a phone isn't being used for apps and the user has no intent to use it like that, it shouldn't be counted in the data developers look to when figuring out how to develop their apps.

What's the basis for your anecdote? A smartphone is a smartphone is a smartphone. It's use has nothing to do with it's capability. Not every person with an iPhone or Galaxy is using smart features. Some use their phone like feature phones.

Every time market share reports are detailed, there's a contingent of MR members who seemingly want to discount raw numbers and substitute what I call, Apple variables. Why? It's a pretty simple market share report. Vendor A sold B number of smartphones and has C percentage of the market. For those who want more detail, it's as easy as coughing up cash to get behind the paywall. That over $400 handset market share report is most assuredly there. Maybe a few MR members can pool their funds to pay for the report and share it. I'm sure that would just thrill the bejeebus out of the dedicated.

The good thing is, the PROFIT report is right around the corner.

 

[JPLC]

I'm afraid that it's going more downhill from here. Last Keynote looked like an old men conference. They can't just buy style and trends by taking over Dre Beats and designers from Paris. They need to dare. Dare to design and make a statement. Like the iMac G4, iPod clickwheel or the first titanium PowerBooks.

 

[Andres Cantu]

I can only hope this is a wake-up call for Apple. Time for their greed to end.

 

[Putzytart]

If apple recorded a decline of 10 million units, yet the total market grew by a small amount of 0.5 million units – then the rest of the smartphone market actually grew by 10.5 million units, but Apple's decline offset it back to near-zero growth.

So "smartphone market falls flat" is actually misleading. It's just one manufacturer that fell flat, the rest of the market performed better than last year.

 

[dragje]

Apple is doomed

I don't think you're aware of how rich Apple actually is. Even IF Apple doesn't sell any iPhone from now on it will takes decades before Apple is flat broke and only when Apple doesn't sell any product from now on. And that's even an understatement.

There is no reason why Apple couldn't make another hit. I think the iPhone 8 would be interesting....
And doomed? Less profit still means profit.... ;-)

 

[macfacts]

Yet another stupid chart showing sales of ALL Samsung smartphones when most of them are low-end junk phones. Same goes for the other manufacturers listed.

Next up IDC should show a chart comparing the sales of Toyota to Mercedes and tell us all how Mercedes market share is so much lower than Toyota.

Mercedes doesn't see Toyota as a competitor but Apple clearly does see Samsung as one.

 

[TallManNY]

Others just continue to kill it in smartphone market. 42%! Wow! That is impressive. Go Nokia, BBRY, Sony, Motorola, etc. I'm sure all those players can keep coming out with flagship phones indefinitely while each selling less than a million phones per quarter.

Seriously, that 42% of the market is going to be something that Apple will eventually get a piece of. Yes it has lots of low end phones in it, but it also has many high end phones that companies are making and selling at a loss so they can stay in the game. Those companies can't do that indefinitely. Apple will get part of that market.

 

[sofila]

Can't understand what matters most:
- Market share or Stock Price
- Apple's money in the safe or our money in our pockets
- Our phone being a good compromise between price/experience or other's phone being exactly whatever they want

 

[leo.andres.21]

Steve Jobs sliced the price of the original iPhone when he introduced the 3G because the sales weren't up to where he wanted them to be. I feel like Apple will eventually have to drop the price of their phones, along with everyone. The same idea happened with computers.

It's because $399 for a smartphone on contract was ridiculous even at the time. When they sliced it to $199, it was more in line with the market.
Nowadays, most top end phones cost north of $599, the iPhone is just slightly above that at $649. It's much better to give consumers a better device for the same price point, which is pretty much the same as the PC industry.

 

[applezulu]

You know, the single most insane thing about business and financial analytics is the constant and perpetual use of two data points to infer a trend line. The reporting is always focused on a current number compared to a single previous number, like first quarter 2016 compared to the same quarter 2015. Then everyone draws an imaginary line through those two points and act like it represents a real trend into the indefinite future. You know what a line drawn through two points on a chart means? It means the second point is smaller, the same, or larger than the first point. What else does it mean? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Yet this is how the financial reporting industry works all the time.

 

[coolfactor]

I'll take 51,000,000 x 1/100ths of a penny please! That's half a million dollars.

 

[D-Dave]

Jesus christ people. Can we stop with the marketshare nonsense?

While I do agree that the marketshare hysteria is not to be taken to seriously, it still is very much relevant. Simply because a larger user base results in apps being created (and upgraded) for a specific OS...that's the reason I use a windows phone only as my workphone and stick to the iphone for private use as there currently are just too many apps i use I simply don't get for windows mobile...

 

[Starfyre]

I find it disturbing to read just yesterday "company executives said that demand for the device was "very strong" and higher than expected." (for the iPhone SE), and today these marketshare numbers came up.
Apple has been pretty good at not giving consumers the specific feature they want, but put in other features that make it worth buying. This strategy works until competitors come up like Samsung that don't hold back and put more features that consumers want more than you.

I find it funny how were now at a point where Apple has to play catch up with Samsung with rumors like "waterproof/dustproof" iPhone. If there was a good time to innovate, it would be with the iPhone 7.
I am sure they have plenty of $$$ to wait for iPhone 7S or beyond to introduce some of the top-of-the-consumer-wants list, but I will be one of those on Android by then...

A company that advertises itself to be innovative, and on the bleeding edge should be able to maintain that lead, (or recoup it quickly when lost). Maybe this is just a tactic being used by Apple to see what Samsung will do for their next update, then blowing them out of the water a year or two later?

 

[69Mustang]

Yet another stupid chart showing sales of ALL Samsung smartphones when most of them are low-end junk phones. Same goes for the other manufacturers listed.

Next up IDC should show a chart comparing the sales of Toyota to Mercedes and tell us all how Mercedes market share is so much lower than Toyota.

What exactly do you think a market share report is supposed to show? I could be wrong, but I don't think you know who the intended audience is for these reports. It ain't us. Sites like MR just use them as fodder for discussion.

Please, for the love of jeebus, don't use a car analogy. We at MR are horrible at them. Besides, market share reports for the automotive industry are almost as old as the industry itself.

 

[LordVic]

Jesus christ people. Can we stop with the marketshare nonsense? Apple clearly isn't aiming to be the leader in marketshare. Everything they do is to maximize the profit share of the smartphone business, which they are wildly successful at being pretty much the only money maker worth discussing.

I know everyone wants to be a Wall $treet big wig, but if your aim isn't marketshare, why the hell does everyone refer to it as if it's some type of ideal to aim for?

Yes, This is true. But is this a good strategy?

Historically, I've found that companies that are catering primarily to wallstreet, eventually have to start making cuts to maintain profit margins and revenues growth. Without these two growing, Wallstreet gets angry.

So what happens to companies who are "at the top" already, enterining into a saturated mature market? Historically, they cut costs to keep up the appearance of profit growth. If Revenues have stopped growing, or even shrinking? how do you continue to increase profits? Thats it. Cut. Cut Labour. Cut Development. Cut your costs. Sell less for more. reduce quality. Reduce innovation and improvements

Eventually, Consumers notice this behaviour and start looking elsewhere. To companies who listen to the consumer market and start offering products and features that the wallstreet company has started cutting.

This is why a company putting their #1 motivation as profit margins and revenue growth to Appease Wallstreet is cancerous. eventually it bites you in the ass when you can no longer count on higher volumes. Dell ran into this problem, and started having severe quality issues just to maintain their profits. They wised up and bought back their stock and went private. This allows them to tell Wallstreet to **** off. Produce quality parts again that people want, while not having to worry about wallstreets perceptions on growth.

at the end of the day. A successful company is one that turns profit. Requirement for increased profit year after year si not necessary to anyone outside of wall street.

Eventually Apple will have to either cut margins. Especially if they can no longer count on the growth in volume of sales. And we're clearly starting to see this rampant profiteering affect peoples opinions on Apple's business. And I have started seeing "Apple Tax" rearing it's ugly head again.

 

[69Mustang]

Agreed, you need to compare high end smart phones from the different companies for an accurate market share analysis.

This doesn't make sense mathematically, or logically. It's a simple analysis of how many smartphones were sold and by whom. If you only count the high end phones, does that mean the mid and lower end phones didn't get sold? I think what you're asking for is a detailed breakdown. Paywall.

 

[rdlink]

As I've said before, the buying public has figured it out - Android is not some evil empire when greater than 98% of smartphone users just use it as a phone, SMS, social media consumption device. No nuclear physics theory is being defined on any smartphone, not even on iPhones.

No, it's not an evil empire. It's just garbage that's being peddled to the vast majority of users who are shopping purely on price.

 

[nviz22]

Most reasonable Canadians will not drop $1500 CAD on a phone, especially if it is the same phone as the lower 16GB model 6S Plus, just with more memory. The 6 and 6S are relatively similar enough to make the price difference between the two not worth it. The only major advantage Apple has is their processor benchmarks since they blow by everyone with the A9 and their 2GB of RAM combo.

 

[crsh1976]

No, it's not an evil empire. It's just garbage that's being peddled to the vast majority of users who are shopping purely on price.

I think you need to take a closer look at the vast variety of Android phones on the market, they're hardly only just cheap junk phones - Samsung, HTC and others' flagship models are all anything but 'cheap' (in price or in features).

 

[RedOrchestra]

It's just garbage that's being peddled to the vast majority of users who are shopping purely on price.

And yet does everything that the overwhelming majority of smartphone owners want it to do - did you notice that only 15% of the smartphone users are on iOS.

 

[Macmoney]

Apple's got its pricing all wrong. I would have entered the Apple ecosystem ten years earlier than I did. I simply couldn't afford to buy an Apple product earlier. Apple's retail prices are terribly overpriced, and in contrast, Apple's offshore workforce are terribly underpaid. How about some middle ground, Apple? Price lower and go for volume. Do we need to get to Huawei market share level before price changes are made?

No new iPhone in 4 inch at 6/6s launch - mistake.
Retail pricing too high - mistake.

Couldn't you have just subsidized with a contract from you carrier to get the phone cheap. Or financed a computer? Thats what me and alot of people do. If companies paid overseas worker the same as US workers then they would just keep the jobs in US i think. Credit to Apple they created a ton of Jobs in US i read an article on that I can't say the same of other companies who aren't even US breed.

 

[tech3475]

Maybe it's because people are mid contract and/or don't upgrade every year?

The idea that companies have to always grow is unrealistic anyway, still, hopefully Apple take this as a cue to try and make a better device/services/ecosystem as oppose to try and make more money elsewhere in a way that's negative for users.