Apple gobbling up retail market share as Radio Shack, Best Buy shrink
Apple's market share among specialty electronics retailers has been steadily growing since the release of iPhone in 2007, having reportedly expanded from 3.8 percent (with $3.5 billion in revenue) to 15 percent ($15.6 billion) six years later in 2013.
The numbers, compiled by Euromonitor International and published by MarketWatch, indicate that the market as a whole has seen a significant decline since 2007. Total sales have fallen from a peak of $109.9 billion that year to $95.9 billion last year.
Apple's retail sales are up however, likely due to the fact that it sells higher end products and provides a unique level of support for its customers. Other "brick and mortar" electronics retailers have been hit hard by the increasing availability of low cost products from online retailers such as Amazon.
Apple itself actually reported $20.8 billion in total retail store revenues during calendar 2013 (significantly higher than the $15.6 billion figure that Euromonitor provided for the company when calculating 15 percent of 59.9 billion).
In first place, Best Buy was said to have a 31.3 percent share of the market last year, with just over twice the sales of Apple despite having nearly 2,000 outlets internationally compared to Apple's 410 locations.
While up from 28.7 percent share in 2007, Best Buy has seen its piece of the electronics sales pie steadily shrink each year since 2009.
Third place Radio Shack has seen its share fall from 4.9 percent in 2007 to today's 4.5 percent share. However, in 2009 the company's share was nearly as large as Apple's, while four years later it has fallen to represent less than a third, or 4.5 percent to the iPhone maker's 15 percent share.
Apple is not only growing its share, but also doing so with premium priced Macs that cost on average $1300, compared to the industry average selling price for PCs now at $301.
The maturing market for "smartphones" is also predicted to similarly begin slowing down this year, and early predictions have targeted Apple as being an early casualty in this shift, contrary to its history among PCs.
However, while Google, Microsoft and Samsung are increasingly focusing on the perceived growth potential in low end devices, Apple continues to see extraordinarily healthy demand for its highest end iPhone 5s, and across its entire premium iPhone lineup. Apple doesn't even sell a low end phone priced near the Average Selling Price of global sales of Windows Phone ($301) or Android ($276).
In stark contrast, Samsung's Galaxy S and Note products failed to reach initial predictions, selling just 100 million units last year as Apple sold over 150 million iPhones at similar, premium priced tiers. HTC's One, LG's G2, Motorola's flagship X phone and Nokia's higher end Lumia phones running Microsoft's Windows Phone all suffered very disappointing sales.
The numbers, compiled by Euromonitor International and published by MarketWatch, indicate that the market as a whole has seen a significant decline since 2007. Total sales have fallen from a peak of $109.9 billion that year to $95.9 billion last year.
Apple's retail sales are up however, likely due to the fact that it sells higher end products and provides a unique level of support for its customers. Other "brick and mortar" electronics retailers have been hit hard by the increasing availability of low cost products from online retailers such as Amazon.
Apple itself actually reported $20.8 billion in total retail store revenues during calendar 2013 (significantly higher than the $15.6 billion figure that Euromonitor provided for the company when calculating 15 percent of 59.9 billion).
In first place, Best Buy was said to have a 31.3 percent share of the market last year, with just over twice the sales of Apple despite having nearly 2,000 outlets internationally compared to Apple's 410 locations.
While up from 28.7 percent share in 2007, Best Buy has seen its piece of the electronics sales pie steadily shrink each year since 2009.
Third place Radio Shack has seen its share fall from 4.9 percent in 2007 to today's 4.5 percent share. However, in 2009 the company's share was nearly as large as Apple's, while four years later it has fallen to represent less than a third, or 4.5 percent to the iPhone maker's 15 percent share.
This all happened before
Apple's ability to maintain or expand its market share in a shrinking market is also evident in PCs, where Apple's share has steadily inclined as the company's Mac sales have grown rapidly while overall unit sales of generic PCs have plateaued and actually begun to contract.Apple is not only growing its share, but also doing so with premium priced Macs that cost on average $1300, compared to the industry average selling price for PCs now at $301.
The maturing market for "smartphones" is also predicted to similarly begin slowing down this year, and early predictions have targeted Apple as being an early casualty in this shift, contrary to its history among PCs.
However, while Google, Microsoft and Samsung are increasingly focusing on the perceived growth potential in low end devices, Apple continues to see extraordinarily healthy demand for its highest end iPhone 5s, and across its entire premium iPhone lineup. Apple doesn't even sell a low end phone priced near the Average Selling Price of global sales of Windows Phone ($301) or Android ($276).
In stark contrast, Samsung's Galaxy S and Note products failed to reach initial predictions, selling just 100 million units last year as Apple sold over 150 million iPhones at similar, premium priced tiers. HTC's One, LG's G2, Motorola's flagship X phone and Nokia's higher end Lumia phones running Microsoft's Windows Phone all suffered very disappointing sales.
Comments
Nice. This should drop the stock a good 10 points.
I remember years ago, people like me would go to electronics stores to browse and play with latest electronics even when we are not in the market to buy anything. Then one by one, the hid the remote controls, lock the computers, put gadgets behind glass displays. There is no fun to go to those stores anymore. Except Apple. Apple stores are the only few if not the only retailer that still let people browse the Internet without being bothered. Maybe that was the real reason for BestBuy's demise.
When did Circuit City crash and burn? It's still quite impressive.
Circuit City ceased operations on 8 March 2009 although their demise began a decade earlier.
In my opinion their missteps include:
Yet the only thing Wall Street can say is how Apple is going to get commoditized right out of the consumer electronic business and the company has no future potential. Apple is not announcing any layoffs and is certainly not closing any stores and still Wall Street refuses to acknowledge how strong a company Apple is. I honestly don't understand this reasoning at all. Apple's share price is still well down for the year while the rest of the tech companies are on a tear. Apple has gotten a number of sell ratings by analysts who swear Apple has no products in the pipeline but they all believe how Google will be creating autonomous cars and robots that will be selling like crazy to consumers in the near future.
I remember a few years after the NYC 59th St. Apple flagship store opened and a short distance away there used to be the Sharper Image retail store which at one time had some pretty impressive products for consumers. However, while Apple's flagship store was packed, Sharper Image's retail store became like a ghost town. It didn't last very long and eventually all the stores went belly up. I'd heard some lame rumors that Apple's retail stores wouldn't last very long if Sharper Image weren't able to last. There are certain people everywhere who try very hard to undermine whatever Apple has or does. It's always about how Apple has no growth potential. A company that is sitting on $160 billion in domestic and overseas cash combined. If a company can't get potential growth out of that much cash then what company can. Apple could remake itself a number of times over to get growth if it wanted to.
I clearly see how Apple's growth in smartphones and tablets has been limited by Google's free Android and how any two-bit manufacturer can go into business against Apple. Yes, market share-wise Apple will continue to be dwarfed by Android, but certainly not profit-wise. $100 smartphones and tablets just aren't going to cut it because there's too much Android competition for any one company to profit except for a conglomerate like Samsung who controls almost all phases of manufacturing a product. Those Apple retail stores are a strong anchor to hold customers and Wall Street fails to realize this time and time again. Post-sales customer support holds absolutely no value to Wall Street whatsoever which is just plain stupid to ignore as playing a major part in repeat sales.
I want to see Apple go head-on against Google in search and see if Google remains invulnerable with UNLIMITED POTENTIAL as Wall Street keeps saying it is. Apple should create its own search engine. Apple has an awful lot of devices out in the wild and Apple turning off Google's search engine on those devices would definitely impact Google's revenue. Google would have a lot more to worry about than simply playing around with Google Glass, Nest thermostats and robotic dogs. $160 billion in cash almost guarantees Apple remains the last man standing when it comes to tech company survivability. Why Tim Cook can't get this fact across to Wall Street investors is beyond my comprehension.
Market share is a meaningless statistic. Apple has never cared one bit about market share. Instead, they focus on profit share.
All of these stories about market share are just irrelevant to Apple's goals.
And how would Apple get itself paid for taking on the monstrous data mining job that search is? By selling ads?
No thanks. Advertising has become a form of pollution at the levels we experience it today.
Could be part of the reason that both Walmart and Target are dropping iPhone and Galaxy prices again. They may also be lagging on smartphone sales. Or perhaps smartphones really are approaching commodity status like the old cellphones before them. There seems to be a lot of price-cutting all around, from service plan providers like ATT/Verizon/TMo to resellers like Best Buy and Walmart. If it is an issue of market saturation then both Apple and Samsung must be feeling pressure to deliver on that next great must-have product.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/05/technology/mobile/walmart-iphone-price-cut/
Apple already has a search engine although the implementation is quite different than competitor's search engines. If, as rumor suggests, Apple "opens" Siri to third parties then I would expect that Apple would receive payment for directing traffic to those websites. On the other hand Apple has priced the features and functions of their products and services to force Microsoft to compete on price as well as value. The cost of a search engine is astronomical though suggesting that the service must be monetized in some manner.
I can't believe that. Most of Apple's profits come from the iPhone. There is plenty of growth ahead for Apple.
the above is real reason behind the statistic, if you just looked at the % you would think something is really happen in retail and Apple was stealing market share. In reality the stuff at Best Buy is being sold at lower and lower cost so thier total sales are down, but in reality they may have sold more stuff but it was so cheap it looks like their sales were down. We all know Apple does not sell cheap stuff so of course their numbers would be up for every addition person who walks in and buy something.
And how would Apple get itself paid for taking on the monstrous data mining job that search is? By selling ads?
No thanks. Advertising has become a form of pollution at the levels we experience it today.
Well you can what Bing is now doing, They are paying you for the number or searched you do, so for every 100 search points you acquired they will allow you to select a gift card from one of their premier ad partners, like Amazon, Home Depot, Best buy. I kind of like credit card they pay you back for using the card. I personally never paid a single penny of interest on a credit card but I get lots of money back every year. If Bring wants to pay me to use their free service I am more apt to do that very letting Google mine my data and sell it to the highest bidder.
Apple could do that same thing, Google could be i trouble if this takes off.
If MS has to resort to paying people to use 'em. . . .
BTW you do realize that to make sure you get credit they link every search you do to your real name, using the collected data to target ads. It really sounds better than what Google does? A bit surprised.
If MS has to resort to paying people to use 'em. . . .
BTW you do realize that to make sure you get credit they link every search you do to your real name, using the collected data to target ads. It really sounds better than what Google does? A bit surprised.
Actually they link it to some M$ account, in this case to my original Hotmail account from back in the 90's. I give you that in order to claim the gift cards, you have to give them your real information.
Even if you attempt to stay anonymous with Google, they track you back through various methods, if you have wireless router in your house and you ever used your phone to connect to the internet via that router and had GPS turned, then use the same router for your computer and did a google search. Google now knows has your address and your name from their mapping databases. Hell just buying something online and have a electronic receipt sent to you gmail account allows them to read it and know you name and other information contain on the receipt.
At least with my hotmail account it have fake information i used to set it, and use it to sign up for things which I do not plan to do future business with so it gets spammed all the time with lots of fakes user information. I doubt M$ has figure out who I am yet, at least I never tracked anything back to them, google I gave done and thus the reason I avoid them as much as possible.