Grim
Grim tidings for Android in Europe as this morning’s Kantar Worldpanel ComTech data for the three months ending July 2015 tells us “27 percent of smartphone buyers across Europe left Android for iOS,” maintaining this year's trend. Europe seems wide open to the next iPhone.
The analysis suggests that smartphone users in mature markets are more willing to migrate to iOS from Android. Android continued to bleed users across the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Also read: The 10-step iPhone/iOS guide
The situation’s a little different in the US, were results seem more balanced, “as the iOS market share decline and Android share gain both decelerated,” wrote Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. However, with iPhone 6S about to appear and lackluster welcome for new product from other manufacturers, we may yet see that story change. A typical pattern we’ve seen before in the US across the iPhone season.
Price curves
Milanesi warns market watchers not to ignore the significance of any iPhone 6 or 6 Plus price changes when Apple does upgrade its device. Last time Apple upgraded its devices and cut prices on existing models it made a huge difference to market share. “In the US, 32 percent of the overall sales of the iPhone 5S were generated after the launch of the iPhone 6,” the analyst warns.
China watchers may want to note the seeming importance of market maturity to customer preferences between Android and iOS.
Mature
“The maturity of the European market is evident when looking at the declining number of first time smartphone buyers – in the 3 months ending July 2015, only 25 percent of smartphones sold went to first-time buyers versus 29 percent for the same period in 2014,” said Dominic Sunnebo, business unit director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Europe in a press release.
“This type of market maturity increases the impact of churn on overall performance as we have seen with Android this time around – 27% of smartphone buyers across Europe left Android for iOS versus 9% in the US.”
US and China
Apple and Samsung together comprise 64 percent of the US market occupying nine of the top ten places in terms of biggest selling smartphones. Though this situation is changing as customers favor Apple above the Korean firm.
The Chinese situation is a little more complex. Xiaomi and Huawei are locked in struggle though the latter seems to be building stronger customer loyalty.
Switch today
Speaking in March Apple CEO Tim Cook claimed customer satisfaction for iPhone 6 series smartphones stands at 99 percent.
If you are a security-conscious Android user hoping to switch to a new iPhone when new models appear then you’re in luck – Apple has provided or is providing a range of tools and services to help you achieve this:
- The company offers in-store help migrating email, contacts, photos and videos from old devices to iPhone
- The company also provides extensive information to help users make the switch on a dedicated Web page
- Coming soon in iOS 9 Apple will provide users with Move, a dedicated app to automate the process of switching to iOS
- Apple also intends introducing Apple Music for Android this Fall, with some speculation it may even enable Apple Watch for Android.
FUD
Some analysts are already expressing concern that “Apple will face tough sales comparisons in the next year, given the strength of the last upgrade cycle, a challenge that may prove too difficult to overcome,” (Bloomberg’s John Butler). They may be right, but given that millions are currently reaching the end of a two-year contract while operators (including T-Mobile) now actively encourage upgrades, it will be interesting if these concerns stand the test of time. We’ll know more about this next week..
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