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July 08, 2013

Carrier Distribution Grows for iOS - Apple Inches Closer to Android

Kantar Worldpanel deals in consumer knowledge and insights based on continuous consumer panels. It combines market monitoring, advanced analytics and tailored market research solutions to deliver both the big picture as well as the fine detail.

When I say “continuous consumer panels,” I mean it is the largest continuous consumer research mobile phone panel of its kind in the world. It conducts more than 240,000 interviews per year and that is just in the U.S. alone. ComTech tracks mobile phone behavior and the customer journey, including purchasing of phones, mobile phone bills, airtime, source of purchase and phone usage.

Kantar Worldpanel has recently concluded its study for the three-month period ending May 2013. It seems that iOS has grown in this period, for which there was an increase of 3.5 percent for the period. Right now iOS has a 41.9-percent of the market share.


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Android continues to hold the lead in both the U.S. and Europe. The figures for the U.S. show that Android has 52 percent of the market share. In Europe, the Android market share is at 70.4 percent. The overall leader in Europe is Samsung; almost half of all smartphones sold in Europe were made by Samsung.

This lead however is showing very slow movement. The Android market remained relatively unchanged with upward movement of about 0.1 percent so far this year. One factor that has recently changed is that T-Mobile has made arrangements to offer the iPhone 5. This is the first time that T-Mobile is offering any Apple product and it seems to have improved Apple’s standings.

Dominic Sunnebo, ComTech’s global consumer insight director for Kantar Worldpanel, said, “The highly anticipated release of the iPhone on T-Mobile has benefited iOS in the latest three-month period, though it has not yet impacted T-Mobile’s share in the market. iOS’ strength on T-Mobile appears to be the ability to attract first-time smartphone buyers, upgrading from a feature phone. Of T-Mobile consumers who bought an iOS device since it launched on the carrier, 53 percent had previously owned a feature phone, well above the market average of 45 percent of iOS owners who previously owned a feature phone. Furthermore, of T-Mobile customers planning to change device within the coming year, 28 percent plan to upgrade to an iPhone for their next device.”

The strange thing is that, even though sales of the iPhone have gone up, T-Mobile remains in fourth place with 10.1 percent of smartphone sales. In fact this is down 3.4 percent for the same three-month period in 2012.

Kantar Worldpanel believes that the upcoming months will be of key importance to both T-Mobile and Apple. It has some reservations as to whether the strength of iOS on T-Mobile can help reverse T-Mobile’s declining numbers.

The following tables show a breakdown for the three-month period of March through May for last year and this year:

OS Percent Share of Smartphone Sales

 
     
 

3 mo. ending May ‘12

3 mo. ending May ‘13

U.S. MARKET

100%

100%

iOS

38.4

41.9

Android

51.9

52.0

BlackBerry

4.6

0.7

Windows

3.7

4.6

Other

1.5

0.8

     

Network Percent Share of Smartphone Sales

 
     
 

3 mo. ending May ‘12

3 mo. ending May ‘13

U.S. MARKET

100%

100%

AT&T

28.9

29.0

Verizon

32.0

34.6

Sprint Nextel

13.4

12.7

T-Mobile

13.5

10.1

Other

12.2

13.5

     

AT&T:  OS Sales Shares

 
     
 

3 mo. ending May ‘12

3 mo. ending May ‘13

AT&T

28.9%

29.0%

iOS

63.6

60.5

Android

32.2

30.8

BlackBerry

0.5

1.9

Windows

2.5

5.4

Other

1.1

1.4

     

Verizon:  OS Sales Shares

 
     
 

3 mo. ending May ‘12

3 mo. ending May ‘13

Verizon

32.0%

34.6%

iOS

43.6

43.8

Android

53.9

50.5

BlackBerry

1.8

0.3

Windows

0.6

5.3

Other

0.1

0.1



It appears that T-Mobile offering the iPhone for the first time and without a contract does have a lot to do with iOS taking a few steps forward with the market share. Is it a strong enough push to continue to see rising sales? We will have to wait and see what the next Kantar Worldpanel ComTech report has to offer.




Edited by Alisen Downey


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