Apple's share of US mobile phone market grows to 18.5% - Page 2

Wow! It even has EDGE data! None of those pesky "3G" standards to worry about!!

But... it is fine for a whole lot of people. (...who won't be buying apps.)

 

It's always been pretty obvious that this was Android's natural niche.

 

If you read through the comments related to that phone it seems like a lot of Indians and people from other developing countries are commenting.

These numbers are still BEFORE Apple released unlocked phones and got their production up to speed.  Plus a lot of the phones sold weren't activated until December after people opened up their Christmas presents and activated them.

Nice chart

Yeah... I was never too worried about Apple "losing" to Android. I don't think it really matters where you rank on a chart like that. Apple makes great products, has great developer support, great retention, tons of accessories, you name it. Oh... and they make an obscene amount of money despite selling 5 TIMES fewer phones than the next spot on that chart. At that point... who cares if the other guys sell more?

Apple doesn't sell cheap phones. Their phones start at $450 unlocked. The iPhone 4 was Apple's flagship phone 2 years ago. It may be "outdated" now... but it's still got a great screen, a current OS, and it's buttery smooth.

The Samsung Garbage™ was never a flagship phone. It was created specifically to be sold for $80 unlocked.

That's a market Apple neither wants nor needs.

I'd love to know the breakdown of ultra-cheap Android phones vs mid-high end Android phones. Just curious.

Not that it matters... Apple is still the billion dollar underdog holding the #2 spot

All of them.

They both grew their market share by 2%...

Fandroids can rejoice in these sort of numbers for a short while, but these numbers mean nothing, for the following reasons.

- Apple marketshare is probably about 2/3rd of Android marketshare, but in terms of quality, Apple easily dominates the top end of the market - the people with cash to spend, and willingness to spend it.

- These numbers refer to installed base - and after the launch of iPhone 5, the momentum has decisively shifted in favor of Apple.

- Even though Android has higher installed base, large portion of this installed base is running older versions of Android - 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, and sometimes, even 1.6. Over 50% of devices are running older versions of Android, with absolutely no hope of being upgraded. Even today, devices are being sold with older versions, exacerbating the problem. So the installed base is not a homogenous, targetable set of devices - it is extremely fragmented. iOS on the other hand has a very homogenous installed base, and over 90% of devices run the latest version of the OS. Other than a handful of Apple's own apps, all devices from the 3GS, 4, 4S, and 5 can run almost all the apps in the App Store.

- Installed base is only relevant for developers - and for the above fragmentation reason, even from developer perspective, the large installed base is meaningless. From perspective of monetization, willingness to buy, protection from piracy, difficulty in testing against hundreds of devices straddling low end to high end, and in every relevant metric, iOS is far superior to Android.

- Even from the manufacturers perspective, the most important metric is profit. And here no one even comes close to Apple's profit figures. Samsung is probably the only Android vendor that is even making a profit - all the others are struggling.

- Today, Apple is selling every phone it can make, so there is absolutely no reason to drop prices, or introduce a cheaper phone, etc. People invariably buy the more expensive phones, increasing the profit margin. At some point, if Apple finds that they can make more phones, or demand is not as much as they can supply, there is absolutely nothing that stops Apple from dropping prices, or introducing cheaper models. So Android's current edge is not really a sustainable edge.

- It actually works in Apple's favor to not have a dominating market share position, because with a smaller marketshare, they can command larger share of profits, as well as get away with business tactics that might be frowned upon by regulators, if Apple had a majority market share.

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Edited by MacRulez - 5/16/13 at 12:20pm

Apple's scale is awesome, likely unprecedented. Cook should win an award for having built such manufacturing capacity. Having said this, is it true they are selling every iPhone they make? Or are they making every iPhone they can sell? I think, with every new iPhone, it starts with the former and becomes the latter. The evidence is clear that their capacity keeps increasing. But the shipping delay is now reasonable, predictable and consistent. That means they are meeting demand adequately. While I agree that Applw is not interested in volume for its own sake, it's also clear Apple would not allow Galaxy S to take the sakes crown, real or imagined, sold or shipped, if there was vast unmet demand.

I'd also add this - despite impressive results in US and auspicious beginnings in China, iPhone is losing rather than gaining ground in continental Europe and certain pockets in Asia not named China. They need to invest in those regions as much as anywhere else.

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Edited by MacRulez - 5/16/13 at 12:22pm

We are about 3-4 months after the iPhone 5 was launched - and there is still talk of Foxconn working thru the Chinese New Year in February, to meet demand for Apple products!

I agree there might be a case of potentially supplying more towards the latter half of an iPhone cycle - but don't you think the poor Foxconn employees deserve a break for 2-3 months? They started making iPhone 5 around June 2012 to stock up units for the launch. And they stay quite busy till atleast Feb 2013 - and even in the last few months it's not like they are on holiday - they still produce units at a breakneck pace!

Other companies make way more units - but they don't use the manufacturing techniques Apple does. Apple's precision techniques impose far greater pressure on the employees to deliver!

According to news reports, Apple had to cut back iPhone parts orders because it's taking longer than expected to assemble iPhone 5s without scratching them, and the parts were beginning to pile up at the factory.

Therefore, needing to work through the holiday makes sense for the iPhone 5, as the production rate is less than was originally expected.   Better to catch up now, than to potentially not have needed inventory for new markets later.

 

So it's a good thing that they continue.