Roger Fingas
Apple's share of the global smartphone market rose 0.6 points year-over-year to 13.1 percent in the September quarter, although Google's Android cemented its lead as the world's dominant mobile platform, Gartner said in research data released on Wednesday.
Apple's success was credited largely to continued sales of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, with the 6s and 6s Plus — released on Sept. 25 — providing a late kick. A simultaneous launch of the new devices in China further helped, according to Gartner. Apple sold a little over 46 million phones in the quarter, of which 13 million or so were 6s models.
Android's cumulative platform share grew 1.4 points to 84.7 percent, still vastly ahead of iOS. The improvement came mostly at the expense of Windows Phone, which slipped from 3 percent to just 1.7. BlackBerry dipped from 0.8 to 0.3 percent, and the company will soon start contributing to Android numbers thanks to the BlackBerry Priv.
A force to watch for may be Huawei, which jumped from a 5.2 percent share to 7.7. Rival Chinese vendors Lenovo and Xiaomi suffered setbacks, putting them both at 4.9 percent.
The world's biggest smartphone vendor, Samsung, saw its share decline 0.2 points to 23.7 percent, or about 83.59 million units. In August the company released the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ to keep sales going and better compete with new iPhones.
Malcolm Owen
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4 Comments
But... But... Credit Suisse said the iPhone 6s/6s Plus wasn't selling! Apple is doomed! Doomed, I tell you!
Meanwhile, they probably got in on the temporary drop their downgrade caused.
Apple sold a little over 46 million phones in the quarter, of which 13 million or so were 6s models.
Pretty sure it was 48 million phones and no, 13 million of them were most definitely NOT 6s models. Apple captured only one day of iPhone 6s sales in the quarter as the quarter ended on the Saturday of the weekend they went on sale. Also, the 13 million phones sold over the launch weekend would have included sales of the discounted 6 series and 5s series. Gartner could not have gotten this more wrong. Ugh!
Well, These reports are based on calendar years, not fiscal. So they're counting (estimating) sales during July, August, and all of September. Apple's fiscal 4th quarter ends on September 25th I believe? So that's an extra 5 days of 6s sales Gartner is counting.
Okay, so, Android grew by taking away share from Microsoft. How much more of that growth is there for Android? Nothing. Zero. Android can only grow at this point, if the global phone market grows overall.
Meanwhile, how much can Apple continue to grow? A ton. Only a percentage point stolen from Samsung, causes Apple's sales and profits to skyrocket.
Android? No room to grow.
Apple? Easily has room to double.