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Research firm Kantar Worldpanel released two new reports on Monday, revealing various findings about the growth in sales on the strength of iOS devices for U.S. carrier T-Mobile, as well as Apple's growing market share in Japan when compared to other mobile platforms such as Android. Both reports were published for the three-month period ending in August 2013.

The first report states that T-Mobile accounted for 13.2% of smartphone sales in the U.S. market during the three-month period, marking the carrier's highest share over the past year with a growth of 1.1% compared to the year-ago quarter. The iPhone 5 also remained the top-selling smartphone at T-Mobile, accounting for 17.1% of sales.
Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Global Strategic Insight Director, Dominic Sunnebo states, "When iOS first debuted on T-Mobile in mid-April, the majority of sales came from consumers upgrading from a featurephone to their first smartphone. However, looking at those who purchased an iPhone in the August period, 56% of those consumers came from another smartphone, including 38.5% from an Android device."
The second report shows the growth of Apple's iOS as a whole in various international markets, with Apple maintaing a strong year-over-year growth in making up 39.3% of total smartphones sales in the United States, up over five percentage points over the previous year and a number that is expected to spike following the launch of Apple's refreshed iPhone line. The report also shares evidence of Apple's emergence in the Japanese market:
Apple and Android have recorded almost identical shares of sales in Japan - 48.6% and 47.4% respectively. However, news that the new iPhone range will be available on Japan's largest carrier, NTT DoCoMo, for the first time, makes it likely that Apple will pull ahead of Android in this key market.
Kantar Worldpanel previously reported the success of the iPhone for T-Mobile in June, along with growth of Apple's market share with various carrier expansion. Both reports did not include the launch figures of Apple's new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, which combined for a total of nine million units sold in the first weekend.

Article Link: T-Mobile Grows on iPhone Sales as Apple Registers Nearly Even with Android in Japanese Market Share
 
Parity in Japan?? Driving T-Mobile sales in the most recent period? Nine million phones sold opening weekend??

That looks so...dire. Apple's demise is surely foretold.. /s :rolleyes:
 
It's funny how the T-Mobile stores have been packed every day since the launch and the Verizon stores and ATT stores have been so so.
 
Parity in Japan?? Driving T-Mobile sales in the most recent period? Nine million phones sold opening weekend??

That looks so...dire. Apple's demise is surely foretold.. /s :rolleyes:


Apple is a sinking ship according to the majority of MacRumors members. :p

iOS 7 is a flop, they say.
iPhone 5s and 5c are terrible, they say.
Jobs never would have allowed this, they say.

and yet, sales are up and market share is increasing.
 
Apple is a sinking ship according to the majority of MacRumors members. :p

iOS 7 is a flop, they say.
iPhone 5s and 5c are terrible, they say.
Jobs never would have allowed this, they say.

and yet, sales are up and market share is increasing.

You're right. I'd like to see how anyone can spin this report into bad news.
 
Apple is a sinking ship according to the majority of MacRumors members. :p

iOS 7 is a flop, they say.
iPhone 5s and 5c are terrible, they say.
Jobs never would have allowed this, they say.

and yet, sales are up and market share is increasing.
Don't forget they also say apple needs to make a bigger phone
 
You're right. I'd like to see how anyone can spin this report into bad news.

Well, Japan and the US, where iOS is at or near the top of market share, make up ONLY 31% of the world's GDP. There's no money to be made there. :rolleyes:
 
You're right. I'd like to see how anyone can spin this report into bad news.

Analysts will find a way. They found a way to predict 6M iPhone launch sales and then try to twist things to say that they weren't considering all these known factors such as sales in China and Japan and sales to retail channels for iPhone 5C (despite the fact that last year Apple shipped a bunch of 16GB iPhone 4S and 8GB iPhone 4 units to retailers). They also claim that they were simply trying to count sales to actual customers (which has never been a metric that could be actually measured).

Apple has the strictest form of accounting when it comes to sales reported. They don't report sales until the risk is transferred and they have a reasonable belief of collection (for retailers on 30, 60 or 90 terms to make payment). For sales from their online store they don't count the sale when it is ordered or shipped, but rather when the customer has signed for the package because that is the point where the risk has been transferred.

Apple's 9M iPhone sales this year are reported in the exact same way as the 5M iPhone sales were reported with last year's launch. Last year Munster tried to say he was only off by 5M because he was counting unshipped preorders while this year he claimed he was off because he was only counting iPhones in customers hands. Maybe Munster was just wrong --- seems more plausible to me. Gene Munster and Peter Misek should be out of a job with how often they are wrong.
 
Well, Japan and the US, where iOS is at or near the top of market share, make up ONLY 31% of the world's GDP. There's no money to be made there. :rolleyes:

And yet, Wall Street and the tech pundits keep insisting that Apple needs to go after the low-end market filled with people with little disposable income.

The problem is that these MBA-types only see "winning" to mean that everyone else loses. This is not winner take all.
 
Is this saying that T-Mobile's smartphone division has grown solely on adding the iPhone? I would think that is to be expected. If your a company and you all the sudden start offering one of the most popular smartphones, your going to automatically get a certain percentage of people buying them. There are going to be people who chose a different carrier solely based on the iPhone not being on T-Mobile. Others might of held off upgrading to a smartphone because they wanted the iPhone. There are several reasons I can think of why someones smartphone market share would automatically jump when a high profile phone initially launches on your network for the first time.

As with the iPhone's market share increase in Japan, that is pretty impressive considering the worldwide market share of the iPhone is falling. Japan has a pretty unique smartphone market so increasing its share there is pretty significant. I dont think it will make much of a dent in falling worldwide market share but its still an improvement none-the-less. The main thing to watch for in my opinion is if the 5C transforms Apple's market share in developing nations. I am a little doubtful on this but we will see.
 
The problem is that these MBA-types only see "winning" to mean that everyone else loses. This is not winner take all.

Agree 100%. Apple is smart about making products that make a profit.

But, I fail to see why Apple could not make a profit on an unlocked $300 iPhone.

If a reasonable performance $300 iPhone existed, I would buy a couple. Oh, and, this being in part about T-Mobile, I would pay cash for unlocked phones and use them on T-Mobile.
 
The problem is that these MBA-types only see "winning" to mean that everyone else loses. This is not winner take all.

Exactly.

Burger King will never sell as many hamburgers as McDonald's... and neither will Wendy's.

But so what? Should those two restaurants just give up because McDonald's is "winning" in the hamburger market? Of course not.

There can be more than one company in a certain market... and many of them are allowed to be successful.
 
T-Mobile increased its smartphone marketshare by offering, for the first time, the most popular phone in the US? To me this just seems like a given.

Now for Apple increasing its marketshare in Japan, thats pretty impressive. Considering Apple is losing worldwide marketshare, it is always good to hear positive stories like this. I dont think it means Apple is turning itself around wrt marketshare though.
 
But, I fail to see why Apple could not make a profit on an unlocked $300 iPhone.

I'm sure they could make a profit on a $300 iPhone, the issue is whether it's worth the trouble for Apple to do so.

Think back to the days when the $500 laptop was the big market that pundits and Wall Street said Apple was missing out on. Apple claimed that they couldn't make a $500 computer that wasn't junk and everyone pooped on that idea.

Well, Apple was working on their version of a $500 computer and the iPad was born.

Another example. The original iPod was $400. Then the next version came down in price a little. Pundits were zapping Apple that they didn't have anything that competed in the $50 range. What the pundits wanted Apple to make was a $50 iPod. What Apple made was a $250 iPod mini and the $80 iPod Shuffle. I want to focus on the shuffle. It didn't have a screen. It didn't have a clickwheel. It didn't .... They sold tons of shuffles because it didn't have all that stuff that wasn't necessary.

There's not much money to be made on individual $300 phones and if a company wants to make profits, then they have to sell a ton of them. If Apple were to market a $300 iPhone, I could see them greatly increasing their revenues, but profits wouldn't rise at the same rate. So why would Apple do that?

Here's what I think Apple is developing for the "low-end" market. I believe they are developing a $150-200 device that boils a smartphone down to the basic essential features and nothing else. No voice, just data. You can do VOIP, Social Networking, Web, Text ... and whatever basic functions that Apple think are minimumly necessary. No app store, no swiss army knife. Just the basics. And the form factor won't be a slab like all current smartphones.

EDIT - sorry for going off topic.
 
This post contains the saddest commentary I've ever seen on MR. It basically consists of Apple fans self congratulating each other for predicting someone will eventually post something negative about iPhone sales.:eek:

You guys are much better than that.

- not being sarcastic.
 
You're right. I'd like to see how anyone can spin this report into bad news.


I'll take that dare. this nice sales hit for them will be cyclical. And may dribble in at varying rates. May even see dips.


Japan has some messed up upgrade policies. For any major provider. AU, DoCoMo, Softbank, etc....Contracts tend to be long term here. With penalties as it were for early dumping of them.

Wife and I got our 6 phones last year. We will have them 2-3 years easily. takes up to 3 years to clear penalty phase of the contract. lets have 7 come out this year.

1 year of contract burned off...its pricing will suck massive ass for me if I go for it.
2 years...they at least kiss me before the have their way with me, I still feel it in the ass for a 7/8if released though
3 years...now iphone 8/9...its now more reasonable to upgrade.

In short barring breakage there won't be phone sales from my house for a while. Many homes in fact. the prices for early release of phone contract are not cheap here.

Changing providers won't help. This too can be very expensive. And Japanese providers tend to not take large losses on covering contract breaks to steal customers. have a fair bit of time left on old contract...they can't make that disappear cheaply.

I pretty much broke even when I left Softbank for AU last year. this was at 1.5 year contract mark. I paid a fair bit of yen to do this though. Day we switched a fair bit of yen came out of pocket extra. It was the reduction in my internet bill (did a whole package with home internet and such along with phone so I could kill off my other house ISP) that got me that money back about 9 months later.
 
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