Apple’s iOS market share in America drops, primarily due to the late arrival of the iPhone X

Kantar, a market intelligence company, has said that the market share of iOS in America reduced from 40.6% in the three months leading to October 2016 to 32.9% in the same period this year. Apple also witnessed similar drops in other key markets. So why this drop take place? It is to be believed that consumers waited for the launch of iPhone X, according to Kantar.

Dominic Sunnebo, the Global Business Unit Director for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, said: 

“It was somewhat inevitable that Apple would see volume share fall once we had a full comparative month of sales taking into account the non-flagship iPhone 8 vs. the flagship iPhone 7 from 2016. This decrease is significant and puts pressure on the iPhone X to perform. Considering the complete overhaul that the iPhone X offers, consumers may be postponing their purchase decisions until they can test the iPhone X and decide whether the higher price, compared to the iPhone 8, is worth the premium to them.”

Kantar said that this was shown by the percentage of iPhone users who were waiting to upgrade in October, which was 35.3% compared to 30.1% in the same period last year. The only positive thing about the quarter was China. In China, Apple’s share increased at half a percent to 17.4%. It looks like even the likes of Xiaomi and Huawei cannot keep the rise of Apple from taking place in China.

This is an increase from 79% in the last year. Kantar pointed out that other local brands, including Samsung, are struggling.

“Chinese brands like Meizu, LeTV, Coolpad, ZTE, and Lenovo were once on the same trajectory as like of Xiaomi, but any momentum they once had has abruptly stopped, with many struggling to get past a 1% share. Samsung’s performance in China continues to deteriorate, with its share now down to just 2.2% of that market.”

However, the temporary slowdown in October is good news for Apple, because the gamble it took with the $999-priced iPhone X paid off dividends. It resulted in the phone’s higher average price and better margins. Last month, Strategic Analytics pointed out that even low sales in the third quarter were enough for Apple to beat Samsung in America.

TrendForce has predicted that Apple will do the same in this quarter too.

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