Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) continues to gain share in the smartphone market in the United States based on the latest survey released by analysts at equity research firm Raymond James. The survey was conducted between June 21 to June 24 with 300 respondents.
According to Raymond James analysts Tavis McCourt and Daniel Toomey, the result of the survey was favorable for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) because it shows that the company has a 50 percent market share for the first time. In addition, 55 percent of the respondents expressed their intention to purchase an iPhone, slightly below the highest result of 56.4 percent from the survey in September last year.
McCourt and Toomey observed that seasonality seemed to have an impact on the results of the survey, citing that vendors tend to score well in surveys prior to the launching of their flagship smarphones. The analysts noted that a good score was received by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in September 2012 when it launched the iPhone 5, and by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (LON:BC94) (KSE:005930) in March 2013 when it released the Galaxy S4.
Apple Retention is Key to Growth
The analysts noted that since June last year, a trend showing continued market share gains of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was evident based on the growth of respondents who own an iPhone from 43 to 50.2 percent, and the intention to purchase rose from 51.8 to 55 percent.
McCourt and Toomey also found that the retention rate for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone increased significantly from 81.4 percent in March to 88.9 percent, higher than the retention rate of Android users at 76.6 percent, which remained flat within the previous five quarters.
On the other hand, the survey also showed that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (LON:BC94) (KSE:005930) will likely to continue to gain market share with the Android platform. However, the analysts observed that the momentum of the South Korean electronics manufacturers declined in the current survey compared with the survey in the previous quarter. The analysts said that the purchase intention rate for Samsung dropped from 69 percent in March to 49 percent in June.
BlackBerry Market Share Drops to a Dismal 5%
The analysts also noted that respondents showed very little interest in the BlackBerry smartphone. McCourt & Toomey opined that the BlackBerry Q10 may be the last hope of Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) in the U.S. market. Based on the results of the survey, the market share of BlackBerry in the country dropped to less than 5 percent for the first time in June. According to them, the continued decline of BlackBerry’s market share is apparent every quarter since June 2012. At that time, the market share of the Canadian smartphone manufacturer was 11.2 percent.
According to the analysts, the purchase intention for BlackBerry smartphone is very low at 1.9 percent. However, McCourt & Toomey observed that the rate of awareness increased significantly for BlackBerry Z10 and Q10, and were 39.7 percent and 32 percent respectively prior to the launching of the products in the U.S. When asked if they have intention to buy a BlackBerry smartphone, 74.4 percent of the respondents said never.
The survey also showed that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) have shown no progress, citing that only 1.3 percent of the respondents own a Windows Phone. There is no evidence that Microsoft’s advertisements boosted the desire or interests of consumers to purchase a Windows Phone 8 or the Lumia 920 or Lumia 928.
