Samsung overtakes Apple's iPhone in Australia as patent battle continues
Samsung has passed Apple to become the top vendor in the Australian mobile phone market, even as the country continues to be a battleground for a heated patent dispute between the two companies.
According to third quarter figures released by the IDC on Monday (via The Next Web), Android now makes up 49 percent of smartphones in the country, compared to Apple's 36 percent share.
?Collective efforts to expand brand presence from all Android manufacturers at all price points will increase consumer choice and drive demand, which in turn will help Android grow to at least 40% market share over the next 3 years. Samsung has climbed to the No. 1 position as a result of a strong push for its Galaxy S II," said IDC market analyst Yee-Kuan Lau.
The region saw a 17 percent sequential decline in mobile phone shipments during the September quarter, though strong smartphone adoption has continued with 65 percent of the total Australian mobile market now owning a smartphone.
Android has also passed up the iPhone in New Zealand. Samsung took 28.5 percent of the smartphone market, Chinese handset maker Huawei came in second place with 20 percent. Apple had 13 percent of the country's smartphone market as customers held off on purchases in anticipation of the iPhone 4S.
?While Apple?s iPhone shipments slowed down in preparation for its new iPhone 4S launch in New Zealand, Samsung led the smartphone market for the first time with some of its flagship models such as Galaxy S II and Galaxy 5 performing very well. Huawei continues to expand its local market presence and contributed to the growth in sub-US$200 smartphones with its U8180 Ideos X1 model sold via Telecom,? Lau said.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, IDC believes Android will "win by a hair," as Apple reports its first quarter of iPhone 4S sales. The firm expects a total of 9.5 million smartphones to be shipped to Australia and New Zealand by the end of 2011.
Despite being unable to prevent Android from surpassing it, Apple has thus far held onto higher smartphone market share in Australia than on its home turf in the U.S. IDC recently reported that Apple carried 29 percent of the U.S. market at the end of October, while Android captured 53 percent.
Australia has been the battleground for some of Apple's legal action against its rival, though much of the action has been over tablets. Apple won an injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet earlier this year, but the ban has since been reversed, allowing the South Korean company to begin sales of the device.
According to third quarter figures released by the IDC on Monday (via The Next Web), Android now makes up 49 percent of smartphones in the country, compared to Apple's 36 percent share.
?Collective efforts to expand brand presence from all Android manufacturers at all price points will increase consumer choice and drive demand, which in turn will help Android grow to at least 40% market share over the next 3 years. Samsung has climbed to the No. 1 position as a result of a strong push for its Galaxy S II," said IDC market analyst Yee-Kuan Lau.
The region saw a 17 percent sequential decline in mobile phone shipments during the September quarter, though strong smartphone adoption has continued with 65 percent of the total Australian mobile market now owning a smartphone.
Android has also passed up the iPhone in New Zealand. Samsung took 28.5 percent of the smartphone market, Chinese handset maker Huawei came in second place with 20 percent. Apple had 13 percent of the country's smartphone market as customers held off on purchases in anticipation of the iPhone 4S.
?While Apple?s iPhone shipments slowed down in preparation for its new iPhone 4S launch in New Zealand, Samsung led the smartphone market for the first time with some of its flagship models such as Galaxy S II and Galaxy 5 performing very well. Huawei continues to expand its local market presence and contributed to the growth in sub-US$200 smartphones with its U8180 Ideos X1 model sold via Telecom,? Lau said.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, IDC believes Android will "win by a hair," as Apple reports its first quarter of iPhone 4S sales. The firm expects a total of 9.5 million smartphones to be shipped to Australia and New Zealand by the end of 2011.
Despite being unable to prevent Android from surpassing it, Apple has thus far held onto higher smartphone market share in Australia than on its home turf in the U.S. IDC recently reported that Apple carried 29 percent of the U.S. market at the end of October, while Android captured 53 percent.
Australia has been the battleground for some of Apple's legal action against its rival, though much of the action has been over tablets. Apple won an injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet earlier this year, but the ban has since been reversed, allowing the South Korean company to begin sales of the device.
Comments
The smartphone market is now 65% of the total Australian mobile phone market, with Android taking over Apple iOS as no.1 position holding 49% market share. Apple iOS, in second place, holds 36% unit share as the market eased in preparation for the new iPhone 4S launched in October 2011.]
In Australia, Android has 49% and Apple['s iOS for iPhone] has 36% of the smartphone OS market segment. There is no statement that Samsung has overtaken Apple in Australia except in the title. It's in NZ that Samsung and Huawei are ahead of Apple in unit market share.
Android has 49% in Australia and Apple has 36% of the smartphone market segment. There is no statement that Samsung has overtaken Apple in Australia except in the title. It's in NZ that Samsung and Huawei are ahead of Apple in unit market share.
Apparently, geography is not someone's strong point when it comes to reporting this type of information.
There's also 24 different samsung android phones compared to the 3 apple offers...
For Samsung to overtake Apple as the leading vendor they don't have to be Android-based handsets or even smartphones, just mobile phones made by Samsung. But it's really hard to say what the frak IDC is referring to because they rotate the terms "mobile phone market", "feature phone and smartphone market", and "smartphone market" as if they're interchangeable.
Remember all the tablets a certain manufacturer 'shipped' to Best Buy, but after only selling barely 10% Best Buy wanted them 'shipped' back?
The only way to really know the market share is for the other manufacturers to man up and announce 'sold' numbers.
If I was Korean, I'd be pretty pissed at Samsung taking the easy road with their smart phones.
It's strange that whenever I see mobile phones being used around the local shopping centre (in Sydney), there'd be five or six iPhones to every non iPhone user.
Same, if not an even greater ratio, in Melbourne.
It's strange that whenever I see mobile phones being used around the local shopping centre (in Sydney), there'd be five or six iPhones to every non iPhone user.
I'm in Sydney and noticing the same thing: about 5-6 iPhones for roughly each Android phone.
I'm a little curious. If Android have just under half the market, then where the hell are they all?
Shipped phones = completely meaningless statistic.
In reality, if you just look around in Australia, you hardly ever see any smartphone other that an iPhone…..
Nor is there really any reason to get anything else here but an iPhone:
1. We haven't got artificial carrier lock-in due to incompatible networks
2. iPhone exists on all Australian frequencies, so the providers actually have to compete, or you just go to another one! (I know Americans have no experience or opportunity for this - but it is like this in most of the rest of the world)
3. Subsequent aggressive competition means pricing is much cheaper than the US on all models and data plans.
4. Best customer experience.
The only reason people buy an Android in Australia is if they:
a) Are brainwashed by the US media into an anti-Apple state (but are ironically willing to sell their soul to Google)
b) really trying to cut costs by buying the obselecent Android model from last month…or,
c) got bamboozled by unimportant "specs" in the store by the friendly neighbourhood phone salesmen…. ;-)
This article is just covert handset maker PR/link-bait.
How 'bout you try and get some actual usage or sales data….?!?!
Someone had one of these on the tram today - I couldn't believe how much it looked just like iOS. I mean, everything about it was almost excactly the same, even down to messages appearing in little speech bubbles on the left and right of the screen.
If I was Korean, I'd be pretty pissed at Samsung taking the easy road with their smart phones.
I took the subway today in Seoul. Had to because of engine check light on my car. And as I whipped out my iPhone 4S, I saw four people in a 1-meter diameter browsing on their iPhones. That's like one on my left, another on my right and two people right in front of me. So Samsung doesn't own Korean consumers. They think they own South Korea though.
If I was Korean, I'd be pretty pissed at Samsung taking the easy road with their smart phones.
I'm sure that this is the issue on the mind of all Koreans right now.
The only reason people buy an Android in Australia is if they:
a) Are brainwashed by the US media into an anti-Apple state (but are ironically willing to sell their soul to Google)
b) really trying to cut costs by buying the obselecent Android model from last month…or,
c) got bamboozled by unimportant "specs" in the store by the friendly neighbourhood phone salesmen…. ;-)
Haha, that's a little harsh. I know some people who chose Android due to cheaper plans available for them, but they complain alot about their phones.
One friend of mine is a "hard-core" Microsoft fan - very much the embodiment of an anachronism these days - who went Windows phone as soon as it came out. The phone and OS seems fairly cool, and he swears by it, of course. Whilst my sister, who for some reason has always (pre-iPod) hated Apple, loves her Samsung Android phone.
I've had several friends or friends of friends (note, that term existed pre-facebook!) switch to Android, usually Samsung, for various reasons. A number of them cited a hatred for iTunes, a couple entranced by the larger screens. But almost all have switched back at the first opportunity - either due to lesser user experience, poorer build quality or realising that their "issues" with iPhones/iTunes weren't as bad as what they thought. Only one or two have persisted with Android phones, to be honest.
It doesn't leave much room for HTC.
I think generally, the phone market will be consolidated to a few players. There are too many fringe competitors who are no doubt on the way out right now.
http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cel...s/all-products
Samsung has like 142 phone SKU's.
Apple has like a total of 70 hardware SKU's and that includes SKU's where the only difference is carrier (ipads) , colors (iPods) or memory (iPhones, iPads, and iPods) in many cases.
Unreal.
It's strange that whenever I see mobile phones being used around the local shopping centre (in Sydney), there'd be five or six iPhones to every non iPhone user.
Same here in Perth metro, no longer a backwater due to, among other things, the mining boom... I see tons of iPhones, like, everywhere.
I found it funny that a friend of mine bought a Nokia N9 over an iPhone just because she could get it in blue, and that her partner had an iPhone and she didn't want to be the same. Quality/features/usability/compatibility weren't even considered. She has since regretted the decision as she's been having a lot of dramas with it.
I think over saturation and boredom is the case with a lot of non-iOS purchases. While I must admit the N9 does look and feel nice, the OS leaves a lot to be desired. It's clunky and confusing to navigate, but it wasn't an initial deal-breaker.
I think the point i'm trying to make is, regardless of numbers of Android units sold (whether the reported numbers are flawed or not) the growing numbers aren't a sign these are better quality or have better features etc, it's more to do with the fact that a lot of people just want to feel like they're different.
For a long time Apple was the "different" option, but that's no longer the case. I think Apple's biggest threat is it's own growth and saturation of the market. On the other hand Apple's biggest saviour is the quality of it's hardware and software and the combination of the two, and for most, that will never get boring.
The rise of Android is anything to worry about. Fair competition is great for everyone.