Android struggles against iPhone as US smartphone sales drop by a quarter

AppleInsider

Sales of all smartphones have continued to decline in the US, but for Q2 2023, Apple's iPhone did dramatically better than Android.

iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus

US shipments of smartphones were already lower in Q1 2023 compared to the year before, but now Counterpoint Research says Q2 2023 figures are 24% down on the same period in 2022.

However, that is the overall decline and when broken out into Android and iPhone, the situation is different. During this quarter, Android shipments dropped 38% compared to Q2 2022, but Apple's iPhone only fell 6% YoY -- and it increased its share of the market.

"Despite fewer shipments from Apple compared to the same quarter last year, the brand's share of shipments was still up 10% YoY," said Associate Research Director Hanish Bhatia. "Apple's resilience was driven by strong promotions across postpaid and prepaid. Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile continued to offer $800+ promo credits for the iPhone 14 while old-generation iPhones were also steeply discounted across prepaid."

Source: Counterpoint

While not giving figures, Counterpoint Research also says that foldable smartphones did better than the rest of the market.

"In spite of declining smartphone shipments, the foldable market reached important milestones in the quarter," said senior research analyst Maurice Klaehne. "Motorola launched the Razr+, its first foldable device in the US since 2021, and Google launched its first-ever foldable, the Pixel Fold, providing alternatives to the Samsung Galaxy foldables."

Samsung has now launched the next generations of its Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold devices, and Counterpoint says it's possible that their popularity means "foldable shipments could reach their highest level ever in the US in Q3 2023."

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danox

Apple is headed to Japanese iPhone marketshare level in the United States ………

gatorguy

Google Pixel sales were up 48%?? That sounds excessive, but there's nothing I can find disputing it. Still questionable IMO, which makes the overall figures at least a little suspect. 

muthuk_vanalingam

gatorguy said:

Google Pixel sales were up 48%?? That sounds excessive, but there's nothing I can find disputing it. Still questionable IMO, which makes the overall figures at least a little suspect. 

As per the graph shown in the article, Google's US smartphone marketshare increased from 2% in Q1 to 3% in Q2, so 48% increase does make sense.

melgross

gatorguy said:

Google Pixel sales were up 48%?? That sounds excessive, but there's nothing I can find disputing it. Still questionable IMO, which makes the overall figures at least a little suspect. 

I don’t find that suspect. Remember, when sales are very small, it’s easy to have a large increase. It’s also easy to drop significantly. Google has just a few million sales a year.

tht

I'm frankly in disbelief that Apple can achieve this level of penetration in any market any where. An average iPhone is about 2 to 3 times more expensive than an average Android or other competitor device. It really speaks to the zero interest 30mo payment plans, at least in the USA, that carriers use as incentives to lock in customers.

p-dog

tht said:

I'm frankly in disbelief that Apple can achieve this level of penetration in any market any where. An average iPhone is about 2 to 3 times more expensive than an average Android or other competitor device. It really speaks to the zero interest 30mo payment plans, at least in the USA, that carriers use as incentives to lock in customers.

A comment like this ignores the entire “price versus value“ concept, or that there are relative differences in quality or usability between the platforms. This is why refurbished iPhone demand has soared in India, even though they are still more expensive than most android phone models sold in the country. https://www.ft.com/content/7ffc9881-7414-4b04-9687-9f95dbb3948e 

Everything isn’t all about absolute lowest price at all times, otherwise our buildings would be frequently falling down and we would all be driving Yugos. 

gatorguy

tht said:

I'm frankly in disbelief that Apple can achieve this level of penetration in any market any where. An average iPhone is about 2 to 3 times more expensive than an average Android or other competitor device. It really speaks to the zero interest 30mo payment plans, at least in the USA, that carriers use as incentives to lock in customers.

Good point. You can walk into just about any of the bigger cell phone stores and walk out with what they claim is a free iPhone.

It is not of course but the way it's marketed, and as attractive as they make it sound, people with little disposable income get sucked in. My jobless grandson and part-time working girlfriend both have the latest iPhones, tho they often have issues with service being cut-off for non-payment.

That's not Apple's problem though, that's for ATT, T-Mo or whoever to build-in the loss on the prices we all pay for service when we're being responsible customers. 

danox

p-dog said:

tht said:

I'm frankly in disbelief that Apple can achieve this level of penetration in any market any where. An average iPhone is about 2 to 3 times more expensive than an average Android or other competitor device. It really speaks to the zero interest 30mo payment plans, at least in the USA, that carriers use as incentives to lock in customers.

A comment like this ignores the entire “price versus value“ concept, or that there are relative differences in quality or usability between the platforms. This is why refurbished iPhone demand has soared in India, even though they are still more expensive than most android phone models sold in the country. https://www.ft.com/content/7ffc9881-7414-4b04-9687-9f95dbb3948e 

Everything isn’t all about absolute lowest price at all times, otherwise our buildings would be frequently falling down and we would all be driving Yugos. 

The only reason Apple is doing well in Japan, China and South Korea is due to the quality of their products and now India is starting to taking off, and Apple will carve off the upper 10%-15% of the Indian market too.

chadbag

tht said:

I'm frankly in disbelief that Apple can achieve this level of penetration in any market any where. An average iPhone is about 2 to 3 times more expensive than an average Android or other competitor device. It really speaks to the zero interest 30mo payment plans, at least in the USA, that carriers use as incentives to lock in customers.

That creates no customer lock-in to iPhone.   It does create lock-in to the carrier.    They’ve already bought the iPhone and have no lock in due to these plans when it comes time to upgrade.   And I believe the carriers offer similar deals for at least some of the android phones.  

gatorguy

chadbag said:

tht said:

I'm frankly in disbelief that Apple can achieve this level of penetration in any market any where. An average iPhone is about 2 to 3 times more expensive than an average Android or other competitor device. It really speaks to the zero interest 30mo payment plans, at least in the USA, that carriers use as incentives to lock in customers.

That creates no customer lock-in to iPhone.   It does create lock-in to the carrier.    They’ve already bought the iPhone and have no lock in due to these plans when it comes time to upgrade.   And I believe the carriers offer similar deals for at least some of the android phones.  

Good post.
I think I recall Google doing a similar promotion with ATT on the Pixel phone lineup, which may help explain the sudden surge in Pixel sell-thru. Some buyers want a really nice phone, give the appearance of being better off than they are, but with no spare money in the bank to buy one. The carriers make select phones "free" with an asterisk in order to lock in those poor and/or money-management-challenged customers. 

techconc

gatorguy said:

Google Pixel sales were up 48%?? That sounds excessive, but there's nothing I can find disputing it. Still questionable IMO, which makes the overall figures at least a little suspect. 

As the saying goes, "twice nothing is nothing".  Google's Pixel market share is so low, that even changing by 1% of actual market share would make a dramatic difference to their phone sales numbers.

chadbag said:

tht said:

I'm frankly in disbelief that Apple can achieve this level of penetration in any market any where. An average iPhone is about 2 to 3 times more expensive than an average Android or other competitor device. It really speaks to the zero interest 30mo payment plans, at least in the USA, that carriers use as incentives to lock in customers.

That creates no customer lock-in to iPhone.   It does create lock-in to the carrier.    They’ve already bought the iPhone and have no lock in due to these plans when it comes time to upgrade.   And I believe the carriers offer similar deals for at least some of the android phones.  

Maybe for low end phones... However, for higher end smartphones like iPhones, I believe people are much more locked into their platform of choice than they are their carrier.  If I had a choice between giving up my iPhone or giving up my carrier, it would be a very quick decision... the carrier is just a dumb pipe. 

Pema

melgross said:

gatorguy said:

Google Pixel sales were up 48%?? That sounds excessive, but there's nothing I can find disputing it. Still questionable IMO, which makes the overall figures at least a little suspect. 

I don’t find that suspect. Remember, when sales are very small, it’s easy to have a large increase. It’s also easy to drop significantly. Google has just a few million sales a year.

Exactly right. If your sales base is a couple of million phones in any given year than doubling that qualifies an increase of 48%. 

melgross

gatorguy said:

tht said:

I'm frankly in disbelief that Apple can achieve this level of penetration in any market any where. An average iPhone is about 2 to 3 times more expensive than an average Android or other competitor device. It really speaks to the zero interest 30mo payment plans, at least in the USA, that carriers use as incentives to lock in customers.

Good point. You can walk into just about any of the bigger cell phone stores and walk out with what they claim is a free iPhone.

It is not of course but the way it's marketed, and as attractive as they make it sound, people with little disposable income get sucked in. My jobless grandson and part-time working girlfriend both have the latest iPhones, tho they often have issues with service being cut-off for non-payment.

That's not Apple's problem though, that's for ATT, T-Mo or whoever to build-in the loss on the prices we all pay for service when we're being responsible customers. 

I don’t see as a differentiating factor as every phone is offered that way.

davidw

gatorguy said:

Google Pixel sales were up 48%?? That sounds excessive, but there's nothing I can find disputing it. Still questionable IMO, which makes the overall figures at least a little suspect. 

Might have to do with the "recession" or fear there of. The phone makers that took the biggest hit so far are the ones selling the more expensive smartphones. Most Google Pixel phones can be had for under $600, so they become more attractive when money is tight. Apple on the other hand sell mostly above $800 smartphones and saw a 6% decline in sales. Notice that Samsung reported that profits declined by 95% YoY and I bet their decline in smartphone sales were mostly from their very profitable $800 and above smartphones.  

In better times, a lot of consumers wouldn't  think much of spending an extra $100-$200 to buy a better smartphone from Apple or Samsung. But when that extra $100-$200 might be needed to pay for the increasing cost of other necessities, a Pixel will all of sudden look like a better bargain, than it looked when it was easy to spend an extra $100- $200 for a smartphone. 

BiCC

muthuk_vanalingam said:

gatorguy said:

Google Pixel sales were up 48%?? That sounds excessive, but there's nothing I can find disputing it. Still questionable IMO, which makes the overall figures at least a little suspect. 

As per the graph shown in the article, Google's US smartphone marketshare increased from 2% in Q1 to 3% in Q2, so 48% increase does make sense.

Numbers do not lie. Deep State people have a history of lying, Those numbers make no sense.

gatorguy

danox said:

p-dog said:

tht said:

I'm frankly in disbelief that Apple can achieve this level of penetration in any market any where. An average iPhone is about 2 to 3 times more expensive than an average Android or other competitor device. It really speaks to the zero interest 30mo payment plans, at least in the USA, that carriers use as incentives to lock in customers.

A comment like this ignores the entire “price versus value“ concept, or that there are relative differences in quality or usability between the platforms. This is why refurbished iPhone demand has soared in India, even though they are still more expensive than most android phone models sold in the country. https://www.ft.com/content/7ffc9881-7414-4b04-9687-9f95dbb3948e 

Everything isn’t all about absolute lowest price at all times, otherwise our buildings would be frequently falling down and we would all be driving Yugos. 

The only reason Apple is doing well in Japan...

Timing? I just finished reading a WSJ article claiming that Google Pixels now hold roughly 10% of Japan's market.

get serious

gatorguy said:

danox said:

p-dog said:

tht said:

I'm frankly in disbelief that Apple can achieve this level of penetration in any market any where. An average iPhone is about 2 to 3 times more expensive than an average Android or other competitor device. It really speaks to the zero interest 30mo payment plans, at least in the USA, that carriers use as incentives to lock in customers.

A comment like this ignores the entire “price versus value“ concept, or that there are relative differences in quality or usability between the platforms. This is why refurbished iPhone demand has soared in India, even though they are still more expensive than most android phone models sold in the country. https://www.ft.com/content/7ffc9881-7414-4b04-9687-9f95dbb3948e 

Everything isn’t all about absolute lowest price at all times, otherwise our buildings would be frequently falling down and we would all be driving Yugos. 

The only reason Apple is doing well in Japan...

Timing? I just finished reading a WSJ article claiming that Google Pixels now hold roughly 10% of Japan's market.

Among Google employees.

spheric

BiCC said:

Deep State people 

😂😂😂

jfabula1

gatorguy said:

danox said:

p-dog said:

tht said:

I'm frankly in disbelief that Apple can achieve this level of penetration in any market any where. An average iPhone is about 2 to 3 times more expensive than an average Android or other competitor device. It really speaks to the zero interest 30mo payment plans, at least in the USA, that carriers use as incentives to lock in customers.

A comment like this ignores the entire “price versus value“ concept, or that there are relative differences in quality or usability between the platforms. This is why refurbished iPhone demand has soared in India, even though they are still more expensive than most android phone models sold in the country. https://www.ft.com/content/7ffc9881-7414-4b04-9687-9f95dbb3948e 

Everything isn’t all about absolute lowest price at all times, otherwise our buildings would be frequently falling down and we would all be driving Yugos. 

The only reason Apple is doing well in Japan...

Timing? I just finished reading a WSJ article claiming that Google Pixels now hold roughly 10% of Japan's market.

There goes the source, eme

commentzilla

davidw said:

gatorguy said:

Google Pixel sales were up 48%?? That sounds excessive, but there's nothing I can find disputing it. Still questionable IMO, which makes the overall figures at least a little suspect. 

Might have to do with the "recession" or fear there of. The phone makers that took the biggest hit so far are the ones selling the more expensive smartphones. Most Google Pixel phones can be had for under $600, so they become more attractive when money is tight. Apple on the other hand sell mostly above $800 smartphones and saw a 6% decline in sales. Notice that Samsung reported that profits declined by 95% YoY and I bet their decline in smartphone sales were mostly from their very profitable $800 and above smartphones.  

In better times, a lot of consumers wouldn't  think much of spending an extra $100-$200 to buy a better smartphone from Apple or Samsung. But when that extra $100-$200 might be needed to pay for the increasing cost of other necessities, a Pixel will all of sudden look like a better bargain, than it looked when it was easy to spend an extra $100- $200 for a smartphone. 

I find this logic doubtful. I normally hold on to my iPhone for 4 years or so and a difference of $100-$200 isn't worth the switch to Android and the pain that will come with it.