Impact of the iPhone 6... Apples closes global gap on Samsung

The impact of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch continued in the run up to Christmas with iOS growing its market share across the world, during the three months ending November 2014.

The latest smartphone sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech also shows that Samsung particularly felt the pressure, seeing market share decline across Europe and in the US.

By contrast Motorola’s share grew thanks to the refresh of the Moto X and Moto G offering “good value for the money”, according to findings.

“While remaining the dominant global OS, Android’s market share dropped in most European markets and in the US where the decline was the first since September 2013,” says Carolina Milanesi, Chief of Research, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

"A decline in Android market share does not necessarily translate into bad news for all the ecosystem’s players.

“The choice of brands and devices within the ecosystem empowers consumers to drive different fortunes for the players in it.”

Across Europe, Android remained the dominant OS with a market share of 69.9%, although this is 3.2 percentage points lower than the same period in 2013.

“Great Britain saw the strongest share decline for Android at 6.7 percentage points,” adds Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Europe.

“Apple’s market share gain, triggered by the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch, continued into November when it reached 42.5% of British sales for a growth of 12.2 percentage points year-on-year mainly at the expense of Android.

“The longer the new iPhone models are on the market the more their appeal will extend beyond Apple’s loyal customers. For now customer switching from Android to iOS remains stable at 18%”, added Sunnebo.

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In the US however, Apple reached 47.4% of sales, 4.3 percentage points higher than the same period in 2013.

“The iPhone 6 was the best selling phone in the three months through November 2014, capturing 19% of smartphone sales,” Milanesi adds.

Verizon and AT&T made up 57% of iOS sales while Verizon and T-Mobile were the top two carriers for Android accounting for 33.7% of all Android smartphones sold.

In the Asia-Pacific region, in urban China, Android retained its leading position with a market share of 80.4%.

“The wide variety of products offered by local manufacturers continues to push Android’s share,” adds Tamsin Timpson, strategic insight director, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Asia.

“Xiaomi remains the biggest contributor to Android’s success as it averaged 30.2% of sales in the three months ending in November, an astonishing 18 percentage point rise over 2013.”

Timpson says Apple sales saw a small increase of 1.1 percentage points, which brought Apple’s share of the smartphone market in urban China to 18.1%. China Mobile remained Apple’s main channel with sales through the largest Chinese carrier accounting for 63% of Apple’s overall sales.

Smartphone penetration reached 58% in the US and 65% across Europe’s big five economies.

“While die-hard featurephone owners state they are not planning to buy a smartphone in the next 12 months, they might not have a choice as vendors continue to transition their portfolio away from featurephones to smartphones,” Milanesi concludes.

Forty-seven percent of featurephones owners looking to change their current device in the next 6 months in the US and 35% across Europe top 5 are not planning to upgrade to a smartphone.