Success does not always rhyme with innovation. Having nevertheless forged its identity around its ability to upset the codes there was a time, Apple today rests on its achievements for many, and despite its popularity. But what do the figures for the American market say about the iPhone ? Is the one we call the apple brand really on the “decline”?
Tomorrow, the Cupertino company will officially lift the veil on its iPhone 14 after months of rumors. But while waiting to be able to follow this highly anticipated Keynote from Apple, let’s take a closer look at the current state of the smartphone market in the United States and its evolution over the past few years.
iOS or Android: who dominates the smartphone market in the United States?
According to data provided by Counterpoint Research and relayed by FinancialTimes, the iPhone has, for the very first time in 15 long years, exceeded 50% market share in the United States. In other words, this means that iPhones now account for more than half of the smartphones used in the country of Uncle Sam, thus overtaking devices using Android as their operating system.
Interestingly, these figures are based on the total number of active users, thus including the millions of people who acquired an iPhone several years ago, as well as those who joined the Apple ecosystem through the through the second-hand market. The knowledge of this active installed base “, as it is qualified by the firm of Tim Cook, therefore allows to take a relatively objective look at the current position of Apple in the United States.
While Android appeared in 2008, a year after Apple entered the smartphone market, Google’s operating system had exceeded its competitor’s installed user base by 2010 and had never been caught since, until today. Confronted before this date with Nokia, Motorola, Windows and BlackBerry (it does not make us younger), the Cupertino company had then, for its part, never approached 50% of PDM before.
What future for the iPhone?
According to Jeff Fieldhack, Director of Research at Counterpoint Research, a trend has been emerging for several years with the iPhone. Starting in 2018, it seems that a growing number of American users who owned a device running Android have migrated to iOS. Still according to him, this observation, which is for the time being reserved only for the United States, could however become the reality of other major markets of the world in the future.
However, Ben Wood, an analyst at CCS Insight, notes that Apple’s annual growth in the smartphone market is intended to be gradual. In other words, one should obviously not expect a sudden absorption of the market for the coming decade, but rather that the Californian company gradually grabs new shares.
Be that as it may, with now more than 1.6 billion Apple devices in use worldwide, including 1 billion iPhones, there is no doubt that the apple brand today enjoys an aura naturally established. An aura that allows him to travel through time and develop his empire, with or without innovation…
Source : FinancialTimes
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