14 DAY TRIAL // New sales data offered by Kantar Worldpanel for the three-month period ending October 2017 reveals that Android was the big winner of the iPhone X delay, as Google’s OS increased its share is several key markets.
With Windows phone still going down and Apple’s iPhone X not available for purchase, most new smartphone buyers picked Android, Kantar says. As a result, the 4.3 percentage points that Android gained in the big five European markets (UK, Spain, Italy, France, and Germany) are not at all surprising, though it’s worth mentioning that iOS’ rival also improved in other large markets, including the United States.
Specifically, no less than 79.7 percent of the phones sold in the said time frame were running Android, up 4.3 percent from the same period a year ago.
The biggest increase was recorded in the United Kingdom were Android scored an increase of no less than 10.4 percent to eventually reach 64.9 percent. The biggest sales share for Android was recorded in Spain where no less than 87.7 percent of the phones sold there were powered by this operating system – and this is a decrease of 4.1 percent versus 2016.
Apple growing in China
iOS, on the other hand, dropped 7.6 percent in the US to 32.9 percent and 2.1 percent in the EU5 to 19 percent, mostly because of the delay impacting iPhone X. Most potential iPhone buyers delayed their purchase to get iPhone X, and thus not only that sales of the iPhone 8 series were affected, but the share of iOS altogether was impacted as well.
The biggest drop versus 2016 was recorded in the UK where iOS fell 8.5 percent to 33.9 percent.
“As of October 2017, 35.3% of Apple’s installed base customers across Europe and the USA had owned their iPhones for more than two years – up from 30.1% a year earlier and signifying considerable pent-up demand within Apple’s base. In pure value terms, it is likely the iPhone X average selling price will more than make up for a dip in sales of older iPhone models,” Dominic Sunnebo, Global Business Unit Director for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, said.
On the good side, Apple is improving in China, where it managed to score a 0.5 percent increase to 17.4 percent. Android dropped 0.5 percent to 82.3 percent.
Samsung, which is currently Apple’s biggest rival in the phone market, loses ground in China, with its share no accounting for just 2.2 percent of the local market.