The iOS and Android together accounted for 95.3% of smartphone sales, leaving little room for others
Buoyed by the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple sold a record 74.6 million iPhones during the December quarter. Now a new study reveals that the iPhones surpassed the sales of all devices running Android in the U.S. market for the first time since Q4, 2012. According to Kantar WorldPanel, Apple smartphones accounted for 47.7% of the total shipments in the U.S. for Oct-Dec quarter.
iPhone 6 was the most popular gift
By comparison, Android phones from all of the various vendors were responsible for 47.6% phones. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus led Apple to beat Android by a slim margin of 0.1%. Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar, said that the iPhone 6 was the go-to gift during the holiday quarter. The big-screen iPhone 6 Plus outsold every other phablet.
The research firm said that Samsung’s Galaxy S5 was the second best-selling device during the quarter. It indicates that Kantar might have lumped the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus as one model. The iOS and Android together accounted for 95.3% of smartphone sales, leaving little room for others. Windows Phone managed to grab the third spot with 3.8%, followed by BlackBerry with a meager 0.3% share.
iPhone 6 benefits from weaker Android offering in the premium market
Carolina Milanesi said the December quarter performance shows that Apple has its “strongest portfolio ever.” It has a range of devices at different price points that helped the company take advantage of a “weaker Android offering” in the premium smartphone segment. Kantar said that Apple also increased its share in China. The share of iPhones jumped from 19% last year to 21.5% in the December quarter.
In Europe, too, the share of Android dropped by 3.8 percentage points YoY to 66.1%. Meanwhile, the share of iOS soared by 6.2 percentage points in the five biggest markets: Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Across the continent, the iOS share ranged from 12.9% in Spain to 42% in the UK. Kantar said smartphone penetration in the U.S. market has reached 59%, and it stands at 67% in Europe.
