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

[jamezr]

The latest data from research firm IDC reveals that Apple's smartphone market share dropped to 15.3 percent in the March quarter as the worldwide smartphone market fell nearly flat during the first three months of 2016.

Apple yesterday reported iPhone sales of 51.2 million during the three-month period ending March 26, compared to 61.2 million units and 18.3 percent market share in the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, overall smartphone shipments totaled 334.9 million during the quarter, a year-over-year increase of only 500,000 units.Samsung continued to lead the market with 81.9 million smartphones shipped for 24.5 percent market share, down only slightly from 24.6 percent in the year-ago quarter. Huawei, OPPO, and Vivo rounded off the top five smartphone makers in the quarter as Chinese vendors continue to churn the top of the charts.

Huawei, which manufactures Google's popular Android-based Nexus 6P smartphone, shipped 27.5 million handsets during the quarter for 8.2 percent market share as it attempts to compete with Apple and Samsung in the U.S. market and other regions beyond China. Its market share was 5.2 percent one year ago.

OPPO and Vivo, meanwhile, pushed out Lenovo and Xiaomi respectively for the fourth and fifth spots on the top smartphone vendors list.

Article Link: iPhone Drops to 15% Market Share as Smartphone Market Goes Flat

The article fails to show all the graphics from the IDC source page....

Apple lost the most market share YoY than the other top 5 phone makers....

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS41216716

 

[dk001]

The pricing isn't wrong with the entry level model, it's the storage that's the problem.

Should be 32 GB (5.5") for $649, and then 64 GB for $699.
Should be 32 GB (4.7") for $549 and then 64 GB for $599.

A 128 GB phablet shouldn't cost $1,000.00.

While I agree in part, add in a Nexus 6P and you have to start asking why the iPhone costs so much.
Huawei might very well be the next market driver.

 

[LordVic]

But who is making the most profit?

its comments like this that make me wish there was still the Downvote button.

this has been addressed over and over agian. why repeating this is absolutely asinine and shows you have absolutely no knowledge of the industry and just like repeating mindless fanboy crap

 

[69Mustang]

Yes, that's exactly what I said. The issue is lots of develops look at marketshare figured when choosing which platform to develop for, and when determining what capabilities the most phones out in the world have. However, in terms of free and publicly available information, there isn't much good data on this, and marketshare is used a substitute. A poor one though. Hence I was asking to see slightly modified marketshare data that takes into account people's actual usage.

Thing is, every single quarter market share, profit, and usage reports are released. Every single quarter, the prevailing complaint on this forum is why market share? "It should only include flagship phones or those other smartphones are basically feature phones." I'm not sure how you can say there's a lack of free and publicly available info. A quick Google gives you tons of info.

 

[RedOrchestra]

The article fails to show all the graphics from the IDC source page....

Apple lost the most market share YoY thank the other top 5 phone makers....

MR will scab together another story to cover that, just to keep to views up for the day.

 

[routine_analyst]

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.

Apple did everything right. For 10 years you wanted to join the ecosystem, but couldn't. That's 10 years... and then you finally did. Excellent marketing.

 

[bitslap47]

NOBODY with a Photoshopped pic of Tim C standing in front of a Customer Sat slide with the word "Customer" changed to "Market" ???

 

[jamezr]

While I agree in part, add in a Nexus 6P and you have to start asking why the iPhone costs so much.
Huawei might very well be the next market driver.

^^^^ this! Huawei could very well become a market leader in the not too distance future. They offer great value for the money....they just need better distribution.

 

[rp2011]

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.

Pricing is not the mistake. Haveing an unattractive lazy humungous blown up 4" iPhone in an age of modern smartphones on the market was the mistake. The lazy iPhone 6/7 series was the mistake.

Looking forward to Apple finally releasing a modern take on the iPhone in next years iPhone 8.

 

[Shirasaki]

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.

But I assume you understand the difficulties on acquiring such data.
And, as Samsung or Apple sells one device, how users use their device is out of their concern.

 

[AbSoluTc]

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.

The public hasn't figured out anything new. Anyone that wanted an iPhone has one. Anyone that wanted an Android, has one. If someone couldn't afford an iPhone but now can, they are either jumping over on the used market, 5SE, or are staying with Android.

Consumers are going to pick the cheapest device that works for them. Those that want something more polished, brand loyal or like the eco system, will pick that system. Same with Android. No average consumer is going to know that. Again, they get what's on sale or cheap and works for their needs.

The mobile market is 100% saturated right now and the only thing that differentiates Apple VS Others, devices and different price points. You have Android phones from every major player at many different levels and screen sizes. The choices are overwhelming. The big thing Apple now needs to work on is refining and maintaining their user base. If they're thinking ahead, they will be working on some new tech and advancing mobile devices beyond anything we currently see.

It's how the tech game goes.

 

[trifid]

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.

Beautifully stated. Focus definitely seems on profit margins more than anything else. A Steve Jobs quote comes to mind:

"We at Apple had forgotten who we were. One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are."

 

[The Game 161]

So Samsung growing and Apple going down? Hmm time to step up

 

[citysnaps]

It's partly because phones are lasting so much longer. An iPhone 5 is still a perfectly usable phone for most things. Not sure if have said the same about the 3G when the 5 was current.

That's a huge part of it.

I have a 6+ and it works great. No need to go to a 6S+ or a 7, and likely not an 8. As a photographer my 6+ is the perfect phone for my use. The battery lasts for two days, the large screen is great, it's fast, never hangs, and integrates well with Mac OS/AirDrop and the rest of the Apple ecosystem.

What I don't need is a version that is pimped up with a curved screen and other worthless dingle balls.

 

[jamezr]

T

The mobile market is 100% saturated right now and the only thing that differentiates Apple VS Others, devices and different price points. You have Android phones from every major player at many different levels and screen sizes. The choices are overwhelming. The big thing Apple now needs to work on is refining and maintaining their user base. If they're thinking ahead, they will be working on some new tech and advancing mobile devices beyond anything we currently see.

It's how the tech game goes.

I disagree with the bolded above.......Look at the data......the data shows a LOT of growth for Android phone makers and a big loss of market share for Apple. That does not equal to saturation. It shows growth for for some and loss for others.

It shows a market shift...not saturation. Apple lost more market share that the other top 5 phone makers combined. While some showed a dramatic increase in market share YoY.

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS41216716

 

[vmachiel]

Time for some innovation!

 

[citysnaps]

Time for some innovation!

Great. What are your recommendations?

 

[Soccertess]

Jesus christ people. Can we stop with the marketshare nonsense? Apple clearly isn't aiming to be the leader in marketshare.

I think the take away from all of this is how much Android operating has grown, and there are some very interesting reasons it has.. I think in many aspects it is superior and exceeded iOS in innovation.

You can say Apple doesn't want marketshare, but when a competing operating system is doing a really good job, the worse thing you can do is go into denial mode and not look at your produce and R&D.

 

[DevNull0]

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

It's $5,100. Gotta love the US education system.

 

[delegagtor]

Still on my 5s myself, because the 6 and 6s simply don't offer anything compelling among the "plethora" of new features.

If they came out with a model with significantly improved battery life and the screen size of the 6s then I would upgrade tomorrow. But I've only been saying that for nearly 2 years now and Mr. Cook seems to only care about "thinner" and not "better".

 

[oneMadRssn]

Thing is, every single quarter market share, profit, and usage reports are released. Every single quarter, the prevailing complaint on this forum is why market share? "It should only include flagship phones or those other smartphones are basically feature phones." I'm not sure how you can say there's a lack of free and publicly available info. A quick Google gives you tons of info.

Usage reports? Please link me to a free publicly available usage report that shows the percent of users that have installed, for example, a financial app. Or any category breakdown.

 

[tjskywasher]

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.

Don't know what you're going on about. Yet again someone using the word "overpriced" without knowing what it means. If iPhones were overpriced then they wouldn't be selling 200-300 million per year. They might be classed as expensive by some, but then again so are many of the other latest flagship phones, some even more than the iPhone 6S. As for not being able to afford an iPhone, there are various ways to get one, there are five current models (iPhone SE, iPhone 6 & 6 Plus, iPhone 6S & 6S Plus) for a start all at differing price points. You don't have to buy your device outright, there are contracts at differing prices along with the newer instalment plans. A chance for anyone, regardless of income to get a foothold on the iPhone ladder. Then there's the refurbished/used route which a lot of people take, you can easily pick up a now discontinued iPhone 5S at a great price as retailers sell remaining stock.

Apple wouldn't go for the price it lower and go for volume business, they'll leave that to Android manufacturers. And just as a correction, the offshore workforce is not Apple's it's Foxconn/Pegatron, etc. and these Chinese companies manufacture goods for several large tech companies not just Apple. It needs the entire industry to raise wages, Apple is very vocal about supplier responsibility and gets a hard time over it while others remain silent on the issue.

 

[bushido]

just get rid of those damn bezels and ill buy another iPhone in a heart beat. the iPhone (hypocritical i got two) is starting to look like a dated tube tv compared to a 4K UHDTV among the top smartphones with its damn huge bezel

 

[SSDGUY]

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.

Hmm … I don't think I've ever seen someone with a cheap Android just text and call. They photograph (selfies mostly) use browsers, games, and other apps extensively. In fact I'm betting casual users utilize more apps than I do in my business. For me it's mostly about email and texting.

 

[vmachiel]

Great. What are your recommendations?

That's not my job! But if the phone market finally slows down, the pressure to innovate become greater, which is good for us.