International growth fueled Apple smartphone share gains before iPhone 6s launch

Posted:
in iPhone edited October 2015
Ahead of the launch of the iPhone 6s, Apple saw continued market share gains across most of the world's largest smartphone markets, according to the latest sales data from Kantar Worldpanel.




The latest data published by Kantar on Monday shows that Apple's iOS posted smartphone market share gains in China, Great Britain, Germany, France, Australia, and Japan for the three-month period ending in August. In all six major markets, Apple's share of the smartphone space grew from the same three-month span of 2014, while Google's Android lost share.

Apple's greatest gains, percentage-wise, came in Australia, where iOS share was up 8.5 percent year over year, and Android tumbled 11.2 percent. As of August, iOS was estimated to account for 37.8 percent of the Australian smartphone market's handset sales for the preceding three months.




Australia represents Apple's largest share tracked by Kantar, besting the 33.8 percent share of sales seen by the iPhone in Japan, 33.7 percent in Great Britain, and 28.4 percent in the U.S.

Apple was also up 5.1 percent year over year in China, while Android's share of sales for the period fell 5.6 percent. iOS was estimated by Kantar to account for 19.4 percent of handset sales in Chinese smartphone market, for the June-to-August period.




Apple's continued success in those regions is noteworthy because it immediately preceded the debut of the iPhone 6s in September. Apple will report total iPhone sales for the three-month period ending in September, overlapping with two months of Kantar's estimates, next week.

Kantar's data did find that Apple's share of smartphone sales dipped 2.1 percent in the U.S., and 1.3 percent in Spain. Its figures also suggest Apple's share in Italy was flat year over year.




Kantar said that the Samsung Galaxy S6 grew sales in the period, but did not threaten the leadership position of Apple's iPhone 6.

"It is to be expected that in the three months preceding the launch of the new products, Apple iPhone sales would be weaker," reported Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. "While a month from now may still be too early to report initial sales numbers for the new models, we can say today that 11% of iOS owners told us in August that they plan to replace their current phone in the next three months, and 87% of these have told us that Apple is their preferred brand."

Android, meanwhile, continued to struggle across Europe, where it saw year over year sales share losses in Germany, Great Britain, and France. Android's only growth in Europe's "big five" markets came in Italy and Spain, where smartphone adoption is heavily prepaid devices.

And in urban China, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were the best selling devices as of the end of August. Consumers in that market were said to be most interested in screen resolution, camera quality, and screen size.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    ceek74ceek74 Posts: 324member

    But their stock keeps dropping!?

  • Reply 2 of 9
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    But but but growth is going to end! Sell! /s
  • Reply 3 of 9
    pdq2pdq2 Posts: 270member

    Currently at a P/E of under 13; analysts projecting ~30% Y/Y profit gains when Apple reports 10/27. Cash continues to pour in.

     

    They're dooomed!

  • Reply 4 of 9
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    ceek74 wrote: »
    But their stock keeps dropping!?

    If only the market worked as you though my it did.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member

    Too bad none of this will make it to financial blogs.

  • Reply 6 of 9
    sog35 wrote: »
    28% market share in the USA seems wrong.

    Kantar (somehow) compiles sales data over 3-month periods. For the 3 months ending in August 2015... iOS phone represented 28% of the smartphones sold in the US.

    For review... market share is when they add up ALL smartphone sales.. and then they figure out how many belonged to which platform or company.

    So if the iPhone has 28% market share over a 3-month period... that means for every 100 smartphones sold in the US during that time.... 28 of them were made by Apple. Is that really bad? The article even says that iPhone owners are waiting for the next iPhone to be released.

    Apple is selling more phones now than they ever have before. In other words... raw sales are up.

    However... since market share deals in percentages including the entire industry... it doesn't really tell the whole story.

    Apple could sell more iPhones... but actually have less market share depending on everyone else's sales during the period.

    And again... this data is for US sales from June-August. I expect the number to increase once iPhone 6S sales are included in these stats. (but like I said... percentage-based stats don't tell much of a story)
  • Reply 7 of 9
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member
    I heard no body uses Apple in Spain. I think there is still a lot of room for Apple to work on growth.

    As a matter of fact Apple ASP is getting higher, and I dont think that is a good thing.
    The iPad Pro, is in a completely new price range, when it is only slightly better then iPad Air 2, I have always thought the iPad were always priced out too cheap in the first place for Apple's Margin. And the iPad Pro will drive up the ASP. Although it is much higher then i thought.

    For the iPhone is the same again. The Plus is increasing the ASP.
    They should completely cut the 16GB. ( No 32GB either ). Starting range of iPhone is 64 and 128. Introduce a 4" iPhone again with 32GB only.
    Then it should offer something of value, like Free iCloud Backup for 2 years of Phone activation.

    Again, there is no better time to lower its Margin slightly downwards. It is at a P/E of ~ 12 now with Forward P/E of 11. And a Cash Pale that will approach 300B i the next 12 months, i.e a Forward P/E ex cash of 6.

    Edit. I think the iPhone upgrade program only works for certain regions. In some places, Trading in your old phone and buying a new one gets you better value for money. And that is with Apple Care+ prices included.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Michael Scrip View Post





    Kantar (somehow) compiles sales data over 3-month periods. For the 3 months ending in August 2015... iOS phone represented 28% of the smartphones sold in the US.



    For review... market share is when they add up ALL smartphone sales.. and then they figure out how many belonged to which platform or company.



    So if the iPhone has 28% market share over a 3-month period... that means for every 100 smartphones sold in the US during that time.... 28 of them were made by Apple. Is that really bad? The article even says that iPhone owners are waiting for the next iPhone to be released.



    Apple is selling more phones now than they ever have before. In other words... raw sales are up.



    However... since market share deals in percentages including the entire industry... it doesn't really tell the whole story.



    Apple could sell more iPhones... but actually have less market share depending on everyone else's sales during the period.



    And again... this data is for US sales from June-August. I expect the number to increase once iPhone 6S sales are included in these stats. (but like I said... percentage-based stats don't tell much of a story)

     

    considering Apple's is at over 40% of smartphone ownership, all those numbers means that Android phones are really really crappy (and unupgradable) and need replacing much more often than Apple's phone.

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