AvonB7, thank you for your reply. The article you linked to was interesting because it applied to the Dec. 2022 quarter, Q4 CY2022, and Apple’s Q1 2023. It can be confusing to clearly figure out which quarter an article is speaking of with respect to Apple.
Having said that, yes, Canalys clearly said Apple Spain unit sales fell by 41% YOY against a difficult compare with a robust Q1 2021 (iPhone 13 intro). This sales drop, like in many other regions was caused by the China Covid lockdowns affecting iPhone 14 Pro and Pro and Pro Max production and inventory delivery. Every region’s iPhone unit sales were affected negatively and it didn’t help that the iPhone 14 Plus just did not resonate with buyers very much. This shortfall of iPhone 14 Pro models resulted in an 8% drop in total iPhone revenues and a 5% drop in overall revenues. Obviously, the unit drop due to lack of inventory in Spain and worldwide was troubling but because what they did buy was skewed towards Pro Models till inventory ran out, Spain still managed to generate more iphone revenue YOY and a record for that quarter, per Cook’s remarks on Q2 Earnings call.
Comparing FYQ2 to Q1 for Europe suggests a rebound of iPhone unit sales sufficient to vault it back to #2 (at 33% of a smaller, declined market). Apple gained 1% unit sales YOY, suggesting demand was good when Pro Model inventory was restored, and sales of lower priced models (iPhone 11, SE, 12 and 13, base iPhone 14) were probably better.
They suggest April 2022 Apple had 17.5% share, which was the low shown on this 1 year limited graph, ranging from a high of 23.6% to April 2023’s 23.0%, Xiaomi at 28.3%, and Samsung at 27.0%.
May’s numbers are Xiaomi 27.3%, Samsung 26.6%, Apple 24.4%, OPPO at 6.0%, and Huawei at 5.7%. Here, QoQ, Apple seems to be gaining a little while Android vendors flat to slight declines, reflecting the still contracting smartphone market worldwide due to macroeconomic factors you cited. These factors have noticeably affected the sales of low and mid tier priced models more than premium >$500 models. Android makers are more affected here than Apple is, at least for now. We will see if all vendors suffer more as inflationary effects and life staples compete for any of people’s discretionary income and expenditures.
Perhaps folks are finally abandoning Windows and migrating their computer AND phone.
Or perhaps they are buying a new car with Apple CarPlay and don't like Android auto.
Yes, people can find inexpensive Android phones but they are not comparable to higher end Android phones. So when considering a higher end Android vs. iPhone they may also be considering switching all of their devices (perhaps older) and/or quickly learn the advantages of having everything integrated.
There are so many things to consider that are about more than just "the phone".
Whatever it is, something lowered that persons inertia to change, whether that be their computer, car, headphone, watch...or all of the above and how everything fits into their lives today.
Having 2 Android phones before after switching away from iOS I just found them really frustrating to use. Yes, they may be more customizable but in the end iOS just simply works better and if you're anywhere in the Apple ecosystem it just all works so seamlessly.
I can't confirm is this is still true today but when I had my Android phones you were always at the mercy of the carrier to continue support of them. I had a Samsung Galaxy S phone the carrier dropped support for about 6 months into owning it and that phone had lots of software issues that went unresolved. I also had a Motorola Cliq which also had support dropped before the contract was up. If this is still technically in play today this is another advantage of iPhone as Apple controls the updates and supports a lot of older iPhones with recent iOS updates for quite a while back before dropping support.
I'm sure the Android experience is better today than when I tried it but iOS just works so good it's not really worth trying to switch back again. Not that iOS is perfect, it surely has its issues, bugs, etc but overall I think it just works so much better.
The tipping point for me was the lack of dual sim android phones in the US market. One+ dropped it and the new Pixel wasn't available yet, I think it's the only android left that is dual capable. Too little too late, I've gone to the dark side and haven't looked back. There was a little adjustment pain, I miss my 7x zoom, but overall I should have done it sooner. iPhone "just works" better for my wife.(and me)
The reason we're switching is not because we like anything better about Apple but because our contacts who are Apple users are not savvy enough to use apps that are cross platform. It's easier to press the idiot button to stay in the apple environment than learn something new, or in some cases because Apple prevents it or doesn't have the features yet. Our Samsung phones take better pictures than most of the iPhones and we can send larger files through MMS than using it with iPhone. Apple wants to hold customers so it downgrades the transfers outside iMessage. If Apple were to make collaboration easier for the Apple users with others, we wouldn't switch, but it's taken as long as a year for some of our Apple friends to figure out how to add an android phone number to a group text. This takes seconds with an android, but we don't use the iMessage app, so maybe Google messages is easier for collaborating (or our friends are just tech dumb). But, this makes it very hard to collaborate in a school environment. Both Android and iPhone are good but in our case we find Apple to be limiting, most likely to cater to the less tech knowledgeable and to help make repeat sales within its ecosystem vs using cross platform systems. We felt in order to collaborate at school, we were forced to switch. So, it wasn't due to Apple being better in our case but in reality due to being closed minded and deficient. I hear about Apple quality all the time, but I've owned Apple products in the past and they had a similar (actually slightly higher) failure rate than my non-Apple products, so that wasn't a trusted "selling point". We'll reevaluate when they graduate but for now we did it to accommodate the apple users in our daily life.
I'm one of these new iphone users who switched from an Android. I bought my first iphone 2 days ago. (I've never owned an Iphone before.) I loved my Samsung s20 fe for great photos but it is such a big heavy phone. I'm planning a trip that was the motivation for me switching to an Iphone 13 mini. Specifically my reasons were:
- The Iphone 13 mini is a much better size for me, it fits into a neck pouch under clothes (for travel). I hope Apple continues to offer smaller phones in their lineups and reconsiders the mini versions. - Apple Air Tag luggage trackers are superior to any other luggage trackers like Tile. (The Samsung version won't even work on the s20 fe). - I wanted a phone with a dual sim, one which was an esim, so I don't have to pull out and store my physical Canadian sim in Europe. The fe edition of my Samsung s20 fe was a single physical sim.
I was worried that I wouldn't have access to the apps and services I've been using (Google Maps, Spotify, Google Calendar etc.) but they work well on my new iphone. The process of transferring using Move To IOS was relatively painless, it transferred contacts, photos etc. I did have to download a few apps that didn't copy over but I was able to get IOS versions of apps I've been using or find suitable alternatives.
Overall, I can see both IOS and Android have advantages but overall, I'm pleased with the switch to IOS and don't see myself going back. I especially like MagSafe (I have a MagSafe battery & wireless charger) , the face recognition (which is much better than Android) & Siri.
Comments
Having said that, yes, Canalys clearly said Apple Spain unit sales fell by 41% YOY against a difficult compare with a robust Q1 2021 (iPhone 13 intro). This sales drop, like in many other regions was caused by the China Covid lockdowns affecting iPhone 14 Pro and Pro and Pro Max production and inventory delivery. Every region’s iPhone unit sales were affected negatively and it didn’t help that the iPhone 14 Plus just did not resonate with buyers very much. This shortfall of iPhone 14 Pro
models resulted in an 8% drop in total iPhone revenues and a 5% drop in overall revenues. Obviously, the unit drop due to lack of inventory in Spain and worldwide was troubling but because what they did buy was skewed towards Pro Models till inventory ran out, Spain still managed to generate more iphone revenue YOY and a record for that quarter, per Cook’s remarks on Q2 Earnings call.
Comparing FYQ2 to Q1 for Europe suggests a rebound of iPhone unit sales sufficient to vault it back to #2 (at 33% of a smaller, declined market). Apple gained 1% unit sales YOY, suggesting demand was good when Pro Model inventory was restored, and sales of lower priced models (iPhone 11, SE, 12 and 13, base iPhone 14) were probably better.
https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile/spain
Or perhaps they are buying a new car with Apple CarPlay and don't like Android auto.
Yes, people can find inexpensive Android phones but they are not comparable to higher end Android phones. So when considering a higher end Android vs. iPhone they may also be considering switching all of their devices (perhaps older) and/or quickly learn the advantages of having everything integrated.
There are so many things to consider that are about more than just "the phone".
Whatever it is, something lowered that persons inertia to change, whether that be their computer, car, headphone, watch...or all of the above and how everything fits into their lives today.
I can't confirm is this is still true today but when I had my Android phones you were always at the mercy of the carrier to continue support of them. I had a Samsung Galaxy S phone the carrier dropped support for about 6 months into owning it and that phone had lots of software issues that went unresolved. I also had a Motorola Cliq which also had support dropped before the contract was up. If this is still technically in play today this is another advantage of iPhone as Apple controls the updates and supports a lot of older iPhones with recent iOS updates for quite a while back before dropping support.
I'm sure the Android experience is better today than when I tried it but iOS just works so good it's not really worth trying to switch back again. Not that iOS is perfect, it surely has its issues, bugs, etc but overall I think it just works so much better.
- The Iphone 13 mini is a much better size for me, it fits into a neck pouch under clothes (for travel). I hope Apple continues to offer smaller phones in their lineups and reconsiders the mini versions.
- Apple Air Tag luggage trackers are superior to any other luggage trackers like Tile. (The Samsung version won't even work on the s20 fe).
- I wanted a phone with a dual sim, one which was an esim, so I don't have to pull out and store my physical Canadian sim in Europe. The fe edition of my Samsung s20 fe was a single physical sim.
I was worried that I wouldn't have access to the apps and services I've been using (Google Maps, Spotify, Google Calendar etc.) but they work well on my new iphone. The process of transferring using Move To IOS was relatively painless, it transferred contacts, photos etc. I did have to download a few apps that didn't copy over but I was able to get IOS versions of apps I've been using or find suitable alternatives.
Overall, I can see both IOS and Android have advantages but overall, I'm pleased with the switch to IOS and don't see myself going back. I especially like MagSafe (I have a MagSafe battery & wireless charger) , the face recognition (which is much better than Android) & Siri.