Sales of iPhones down year-on-year despite popularity of iPhone XR in US
The iPhone XR was the best-selling smartphone in the United States in the second quarter, according to research from Kantar, but the share of iOS device sales seem to have slipped in both the US and major European markets while Android vendors enjoy growth during the same period.

In the second quarter of 2019, the iPhone XR secured the top spot in US sales with a 7.8% share of the market. Apple dominated the top three spots entirely, with the iPhone 8 and iPhone XS Max in second and third place respectively, followed by Samsung's Galaxy S10+ and Galaxy S10 in fourth and fifth for the quarter.
The bulk of Kantar's report relates to the proportion of sales of devices with different operating systems, namely comparing iOS with Android and others. While the data does reveal year-on-year changes in operating system proportions for a selection of markets, it does not advise on how many smartphones are actually sold, nor the levels for specific companies, aside from Apple for iOS.
According to the company, iOS saw a year-on-year percentage drop in proportion of 0.8% to 19.1 percent of sales in the EU5 area, covering the five major markets in Europe. By contrast, Android saw a gain of 0.6% from 79.5% for the three-month period ending June 2018 to 80.1% for 2019.
On a country-specific basis for EU5, iOS gained the most share in Italy at 3.4%, followed by Spain and Germany. There was a drop of 0.8% in the UK and large 5% in France for iOS, contributing to the overall EU5 downturn.
For the United States, iOS saw its share of sales drop year-on-year from 38.7% for Q2 2018 to 36.3% for Q2 2019. Over the same period, Android saw its share increase from 61% for 2018 to 63.5% in 2019.
Apple saw year-on-year sales share drop for iOS by 5.5% in Japan to 37.4% while Android gained 6% to reach 61.8%. In Australia, iOS gained 0.7% to hit 33%, but Android saw no percentage change at 66.8%.
The important China market was good for Apple, with a moderate improvement in sales share for iOS from 19.4% in Q2 2018 to 19.7% for Q2 2019. Meanwhile, Android's 80.4% of sales in Q2 2018 dipped down by half a percent to 79.9% for the 2019 results in the market.
Huawei is seen to have endured a number of "large setbacks" in the period, Kantar global director Dominic Sunnebo suggests, alluding to bans put in place by the U.S. government to limit the company's activities in the country, which have since been rolled back. "Early indications are that Samsung and Xiaomi are the key beneficiaries, with Apple seeing a smaller uptick in sales as a result," Sunnebo highlights, but notes many Huawei owners are simply putting off upgrading until more clarity on the situation can be reached, rather than opting for a competing device.
Apple's small improvement in China is with a backdrop of unrest by the country's consumers who may view the iPhone maker as a symbol of the U.S., prompting calls for a boycott of its products, but the support for the local hero Huawei is seemingly helping it further its sales in its home country. When combined with sister brand Honor, Huawei is close to making up one in every two sales in China for the period, garnering a 46.1% share.

In the second quarter of 2019, the iPhone XR secured the top spot in US sales with a 7.8% share of the market. Apple dominated the top three spots entirely, with the iPhone 8 and iPhone XS Max in second and third place respectively, followed by Samsung's Galaxy S10+ and Galaxy S10 in fourth and fifth for the quarter.
The bulk of Kantar's report relates to the proportion of sales of devices with different operating systems, namely comparing iOS with Android and others. While the data does reveal year-on-year changes in operating system proportions for a selection of markets, it does not advise on how many smartphones are actually sold, nor the levels for specific companies, aside from Apple for iOS.
According to the company, iOS saw a year-on-year percentage drop in proportion of 0.8% to 19.1 percent of sales in the EU5 area, covering the five major markets in Europe. By contrast, Android saw a gain of 0.6% from 79.5% for the three-month period ending June 2018 to 80.1% for 2019.
On a country-specific basis for EU5, iOS gained the most share in Italy at 3.4%, followed by Spain and Germany. There was a drop of 0.8% in the UK and large 5% in France for iOS, contributing to the overall EU5 downturn.
For the United States, iOS saw its share of sales drop year-on-year from 38.7% for Q2 2018 to 36.3% for Q2 2019. Over the same period, Android saw its share increase from 61% for 2018 to 63.5% in 2019.
Apple saw year-on-year sales share drop for iOS by 5.5% in Japan to 37.4% while Android gained 6% to reach 61.8%. In Australia, iOS gained 0.7% to hit 33%, but Android saw no percentage change at 66.8%.
The important China market was good for Apple, with a moderate improvement in sales share for iOS from 19.4% in Q2 2018 to 19.7% for Q2 2019. Meanwhile, Android's 80.4% of sales in Q2 2018 dipped down by half a percent to 79.9% for the 2019 results in the market.
Huawei is seen to have endured a number of "large setbacks" in the period, Kantar global director Dominic Sunnebo suggests, alluding to bans put in place by the U.S. government to limit the company's activities in the country, which have since been rolled back. "Early indications are that Samsung and Xiaomi are the key beneficiaries, with Apple seeing a smaller uptick in sales as a result," Sunnebo highlights, but notes many Huawei owners are simply putting off upgrading until more clarity on the situation can be reached, rather than opting for a competing device.
Apple's small improvement in China is with a backdrop of unrest by the country's consumers who may view the iPhone maker as a symbol of the U.S., prompting calls for a boycott of its products, but the support for the local hero Huawei is seemingly helping it further its sales in its home country. When combined with sister brand Honor, Huawei is close to making up one in every two sales in China for the period, garnering a 46.1% share.
Comments
With the X I think Apple was testing how much of a price increase the market would bear (and the higher ASP would allow them to show revenue growth even when sales were flat to down). I think they got their answer. I’d be surprised if there are any price cuts this year and I’ll bet the XS gets removed from the lineup. But I don’t think we’ll see any price increases or storage configurations that push up the price. And I’ll bet we see Apple aggressively pushing trade-ins again.
And, true to form, Apple XR was the top selling phone in the US in 2019 Q2 followed by iPhone XS and 8. Clearly, pricing is not the barrier for those wanting flagship phones. What this report says, if it's accurate, is that there were a few more cheaper phones sold in the quarter.
So what? Market share only matters to Wall Street. Since Apple is notoriously parsimonious with sales data, *estimated" market share is the only hook the Street has to hang its predictions on. Nobody looking at the company books is going to say "Wow, you are losing your ass financially, but you really have nice market share."
It is well understood that not everybody can afford high-priced phones (by anybody), and there is a market for lower-priced units. But as we all know, Apple chooses not to go after the lower end in any of their products, almost never has.
Interestingly enough, I found a link that had images for 53 different models of using the Kirin 980, and that is certainly less actually numbers of devices than those using Apple's current A12 SOC. That's a lot of engineering resources devoted to a line of products that starts at much lower price points than Apple's current product line, and basically doesn't challenge Apple all that well on the flagship end of the market, and this is all provable by the ASP's generated by both product lines. I don't have to note, but I will, that Huawei mostly competes in the Android OS device market, and not directly with Apple's iPhone.
Compare and contrast to Apple that has only current three models, all with high ASP's, and all with long lifecycle's, and of course, all of the benefits of the expanding Apple ecosystem, and all of which carry at least a one year advantage in SOC performance over any Android OS devices. Whether Apple needs to make a lower price model, perhaps along the line of the SE, is certainly debatable, but there isn't any current crisis from not doing that.
iOS HW and SW has matured enough to be able to meet expectations of a substantial percentage of the user base. Apple kept profits growing for an while by marching the ASP up, but that has probably reached the point of demand destruction- paying $1000 for a cell phone is obscene.
I really wish they just offer iPhone Subscription model, or iPhone Upgrade Programme worldwide with AppleCare + included and up to 48 months financing. I guess that will be coming once Apple Card is lunched.
1. IP laws fail. So anything Apple invents or adds will be copied by knockoffs. Look at all the people buying phones with a gimmicky notch(plus chin) becasue it's the poor mans iPhone X.
2. It's everyone Vs. Apple.
When you have 1,000+ companies. 3,000+ phone models and 50 buck knockoffs battling Apple it's gonna be tough fighting them off.
iPod.
iTunes.
Airpods before the knockoffs come in with 20 buck crap.
iPad would have been dominating but when carriers are handing them out for free and Amazon is selling them for 40 bucks it gives competitors an unfair advantage.
Apple Watch is heading in this direction also but will face the cheap alternatives problem.
I know all the rumours point to another iterative upgrade this year so if there is room to stimulate sales, one of the options is to bring pricing down. There have been a few rumours about component cost being a deciding factor on some areas of this year's phones.
I also think there is room for a new SE type device (lower cost) with a higher screen to body ratio. The 6s, 7 series and 8 series don't fit well with today's entry level and mid rangers all sporting 'full' displays. It makes them look dated. Moving such a release out of the main release cycle (to say, March) would also serve a good purpose.
Except the core mission now seems to be extracting more money out of existing customers since hardware growth is stagnant. Which might be one reason why Jony Ive thought now was a good time to leave. The Apple of the future seems to be how can we get someone to spend $10 a month on x service.