IPhone share hit 36% in U.S., fell to 20% in France

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/12/22/report-iphone-share-hit-36-in-u-s-fell-to-20-in-france/

by FluidDjango • 15 years ago

20 23 15 years ago

tech.fortune.cnn.com

codesuela• 15 years ago

I know a few people who switched from iPhone to Android (Galaxy II) and it is definitely not because of "price sensitivity" but rather lack of innovation and loss of marketing traction on Apple's side. An iPhone is just not that hip and not that much of a lifestyle object anymore. Also some waited for the iPhone five to come out but when that did not happen the went Android. I am from Germany by the way, where Apple lost 5% market share.

sunkencity2• 15 years ago

Did the total market grow? Article doesn't say anything about that, title slightly misleading as it is about new phone sold, not the total of users. I'd expect android to sell more, but apple to continue to hold the high end.

AndrewDucker2• 15 years ago

Here's some worldwide figures: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/gartner-windows-phone-mar...

From Q3 2010 -> Q3 2011 iOS went from 13million to 17million. Android went from 20million to 60million.

saturdaysaint• 15 years ago

It's hard not to take these "hipness reports" with a gigantic rock of salt. Anyone that's lurked a tech forum for the last few years has heard stories of Blackberry surging in popularity among London teens and Nokia pride prevailing over iPhone hype among Europeans. Needless to say, Europe hasn't exactly proven to be a style bellwether. The vastly simpler and more likely explanation for the difference is that Apple products are far more expensive in Europe (and, to a degree that varies by country, that people in many European countries have less disposable income than the average American).

AndrewDucker2• 15 years ago

What's interesting is that Blackberry _has_ surged recently: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/31/android-uk-...

tintin• 15 years ago

Blackberry is very popular because they offer a free IM service. And teens say they can type much faster on a keyboard than on a touchscreen. Those are the motivations of the teens here. After there big service-down-time a lot of people switched to Android, but I'm still seeing a lot of BB here.

And you are also wrong about the price. The iPhone is not more expensive than other phones. Besides, most people don't buy a phone here, they take a contract with a provider.

So it's a little less salty.

harryf• 15 years ago

IMO this isn't really about consumers making smart choices. It's about incumbent telecoms operators like France Telecom making sure they keep a balance of power between suppliers. They're making sure that as their customers come up to renew their contracts and upgrade their phone they're leaving the store with an Android device.

Despite the strength of the iPhone brand, there's still a significant chunk of the market that really "doesn't care" and just wants a phone that works. Sure they'd be happy to have a camera and all the rest of what a smart phone offers but they're cautious about increasing their monthly bill with data charges and, first and foremost, just want a phone. You can sell this type of consumer an Android phone quite easily, even if they came into your store asking for an iPhone.

Meanwhile Apple made the "mistake" of pushing their vision of user experience all the way through consumer. To do this they dictated terms to telcos on how they distribute iPhones, and broke long established conventions built up with Nokia, Motorola, Sony Erikson and others about the distribution process, and questioned the role of the telco in that process. That left telcos scared of a future where Apple is their dominant supplier. So they fixed it.

IMO that's where these numbers are coming from.

markokocic2• 15 years ago

In France Apple doesn't have home advantage and as strong patent portfolio as in US, so it has to compete with the others only on the merits of quality and price of their phone.

mattmanser• 15 years ago

"The French market is showing increasing signs of price sensitivity," Kantar's Dominic Sunnebo told Reuters.

So just price then.

Also have any phones actually been banned from sale in the US yet? I thought HTC had time to change their product.

markokocic2• 15 years ago

The same quote also mean just quality, since you get better phone for the same money you want to spend ;)

I understood that HTC is from the US banned until they change their product, but you may be right.

Anyways, it's much harder for any non US company to compete with Apple (and Motorola) on US market. Take an example of Nokia which was absolute smartphone leader everywhere in the world excluding US. HTC and Samsung are in the similar position.

babebridou2• 15 years ago

"just price" indeed. In France there are incredible offers for Android phones (I got my Motorola Atrix for "free" back in september), whereas the prices of iPhones have doubled since the device opened itself to multiple operators, from 99€ for 16GB to 199€ for the same iPhone4 (with network plan) between december 2010 and december 2011.

We suffer from a strange case of illegal trust between our three main network providers (four if we include the big reseller Virgin) in France, and sadly we have a hard time to convince the authorities to act, since we don't have the concept of a class-action lawsuit in our system.

edit: typos

colinm• 15 years ago

Useless without the marketshare stats for other phones. It's like saying I sold 4 more sandwiches on Tuesday.

bilbo0s• 15 years ago

Question for anyone caring to posit an opinion.

I have interest in a few apps out there. All are available on iOS and Android. I have found the iOS apps to be MUCH more profitable. Apps made for iPad are incredibly profitable. Now realize, I am only talking about apps I had a hand in.

My question is, why is this? Is this just the way the market is? And if others are getting more profit from Android than iPhone, what do you think is driving that?

I guess the question is, how do you get Android users to pay you? It is an important question if such a growing number of people are using Android.

talmand• 15 years ago

I've always felt that the two are different markets and you have to treat them accordingly.

Owners of the iPhone can be much different than Android owners, think of them as your premium buyer. They are more apt to pay for an app but their expectations are much higher.

Owners of Android devices can belong within a huge range of factors involving buying habits. Think of them as your mainstream audience. Since there are so many variations of devices and their price points, it is only natural that there would be differences within that audience as to who pays and who doesn't.

For instance, I own an LG Optimus V. I went with that because the phone was cheap and the monthly rate was much more reasonable than from the big carriers. It serves my needs quite nicely and I am quite happy with the choice. I have yet to purchase an app for it. Not that I never would, if the app is useful enough I would pay for it. It's just I've never found an app I really needed badly enough to buy. Then again, I only have a minimum of apps installed (mostly ad driven) because I'm probably not your typical example.

By the way, the phone is rooted with CM7 installed to give an idea of where I stand technical-wise.

I would wonder if there's some sort of correlation between the Mac and PC software development and marketing efforts. For some reason I feel a Mac user is more apt to buy a software package while a PC user would explore cheaper, or even free, options since so much of that is available in that market.

juliano_q• 15 years ago

Basically:

iPhone = premium device

Android = premium, medium and lower end devices.

I know many people that have cheap Android phones and never buy apps. I also know a few people (including myself) that own a top end Android device and buy a lot of apps (I have paid for 63 atm). Of course it not a rule (some people with lower end devices buy a lot of apps) but I think that is obvious that people with more money to spend on a phone are more prone to spend money on apps for the phone.

brohee• 15 years ago

Siri still only understand English right? If so that would go a long way explaining the fall in non English speaking markets.

ugh• 15 years ago

Not really. Siri understands German and French.

mgkimsal• 15 years ago

And Australian.

mtgred• 15 years ago

Siri sucks in french. Many of the queries available in english are not there. Query responses are also slower in french especially on a slow connection. The local support is poor in Europe: if you asked for a nice restaurant, it says "sorry this service is not available in Belgium"

Siri is not even available for many european languages. It's not surprising the 4S sells better in english speaking countries.

tehayj• 15 years ago

Seems like the U.S. and UK need to wake up and realize that crApple ain't the way to go...

IPhone share hit 36% in U.S., fell to 20% in France

Related Stories