Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s smartphone shares appears to have risen approximately 10 percent in the early days of the iPhone 5S and 5C launch, according to surveys done by Raymond James. Analysts Tavis C. McCourt and Daniel Toomey said they surveyed more than 500 people between Sept. 16 and 17.
According to their survey, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) appears to be stealing share from BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB). Meanwhile Android’s share of the market appears to have remained the same, as did Windows Phone.
Their survey found that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) edged out Android with 50 percent of the users in their survey. That’s an increase of 10 percent market share. Android had 45 percent of the market. The analysts found that retention rates for Android increased to 80 percent, a new all-time high for their survey. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s retention rate was 86 percent, highlighting just how sticky both of the top two platforms are. They believe that fewer users are switching platforms now because the market is starting to age and users have made their decision about which platform they like best.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) continues to hold the lion’s share of the Android market, although demand for its devices continues to cool, just as it has since June. The analysts found that few consumers knew about or wanted Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Moto X phones, which just launched recently.
The analysts believe that since Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has just finished a full year of major market share gains in North America, its gains will start to slow. They note that over the last four quarters, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s share went from 43 percent to 50 percent in their regular quarterly surveys. They believe Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s share is stabilizing at 50 percent as expected share gains decelerated to 2.1 percent in September from 4.8 percent in June.
They believe that about 26.8 percent of iPhone users will upgrade to an iPhone 5S by the end of the year, which is higher than the 24.3 percent upgrade intention for last year’s model. The analysts said so far early demand for the iPhone 5C “looks minimal” in their survey as six times as many current iPhone users said they would upgrade to a 5S rather than a 5C. They note that this is consistent with what they have found in store checks.
Intended smartphone purchases
The analysts have provided some graphs highlighting where the four major smartphone ecosystems (iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry) currently stand in terms of market share from their survey, as well as intensions for the next smartphone purchases. If the intentions indicated in their survey are accurate, Windows Phone could continue to make slow strides in gaining market share as intent to purchase Windows Phones increased to 3.8 percent during the September quarter.
