A week ago, we posted about KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo's forecast that Apple might be registering its best quarter sales ever in the final three months of 2014. This time around, market research firm Kantar Worldpanel has collected data that seems to support the idea that Apple is indeed on track to achieve its best quarter sales ever.
According to Kantar, in the three month period that ended October 31st, Apple's share of smartphone sales increased in every market. As for Android devices, they still lead the market overall by a certain margin, but it appears that their sales are on the decline.
Over the years, Apple has seen its market share eaten away by Android handsets, especially those that offer low prices, large display screens, and loads of features. But with the release of the iPhone 6 and the bigger iPhone 6 Plus -- devices that feature generous screen sizes, 4G compatibility, and Apple Pay -- it looks like Apple is gaining back some of the market share it lost and maybe even more.
Kantar has identified five big markets in Europe, namely Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Across these regions, Apple has gained 6 percentage points, which means it now accounts for 20.7 percent of all sales in those markets. In Great Britain alone, Apple is now at 40 percent, its largest market share ever, after gaining 10.4 percentage points over last year.
As recently as a month ago, Apple only had 30 percent share of smartphone sales in the United Kingdom. It is quite possible that the increase in market share has something to do with the coming holiday season.
Or it might be brand loyalty, at least as offered by Kantar's analysts, who noted that about 86 percent of British buyers upgraded from an older iPhone into a newer model (only 5 percent of British users switched from Samsung into Apple).
Kantar's other findings offer some interesting points. In Great Britain for instance, the iPhone 6 outsold the iPhone 6 Plus by a four-to-one ratio. And it appears that more men are making purchases than women. 64 percent of the buyers are male.
What about in the United States? Over the past three months, iPhones made up four out of the five top-selling smartphone models. But according to Kantar's findings, Apple sales only increased by 0.7 percent. Still, it is a good number for Apple, and considering that the company has always had impressive sales figures in America, keeping the market share consistent is definitely nothing to complain about.
Also in the US, the iPhone 6 outsold the iPhone 6 Plus by a three-to-one ratio. The iPhone 6 holds a 33 percent market share and is the best-selling iOS handset for the three month period ending October 31st. The iPhone 6 Plus holds 10 percent of iOS sales.
Curiously, the iPhone 5S is still selling well, and the iPhone 5C, which many expect to be phased out, is doing well, too. Indeed, the iPhone 5S is the second best-selling iPhone with 26 percent market share, while the iPhone 5C is third best with 18 percent market share.
