YOY Smartphone Sales Growth in 7 Major Countries thru January 2013 End (Kantar ComTech Worldpanel)
... with emphasis on the United States market.
• Kantar Comtech YoY Worldpanel Sales Growth Data by All Smartphone OS Platforms in 7 Countries
kantarworldpanel.com
• YoY Winners and Losers
The big winners in YoY sales share growth for the 3 month period ending January 2013 in most of these 7 markets were Android and Windows. The big losers in most of these market were RIM's BlackBerry and Symbian. Samsung's Bada showed small share growth in 3 of the markets but had losses or no growth in the others. Apple's iOS showed relatively small sales share growth in 3 country markets (the largest in Australia) but lost sales share in Italy, and in the US.
In the US, Apples iPhone YoY sales share was down 4.7% percentage points (-9.3%) from 50.6% to 45.9% -- a relatively big hit considering that iPhone 5 was being sold for 2 of the 3 months in the January 2013 ending 3 month period.
Once the largest smartphone shareholder in the US with almost 50% of its user base, RIM's Blackberry OS lost 2.4 percentage points (-73%) YoY dropping from 3.3% of sales share in the US to 0.9% of US sales share in the January 2013 ending 3 month period.
While Android was a big gainer in the US with sales share up 6.4 percentage points (+15%) YoY from 43% the biggest OS platform gainer was actually Microsoft's Windows Phone which gained 1.1 percentage point (+52%) of YoY sales share growing from only 2.1% sales share to 3.2%.
The big smartphone OEM gainer in the US, despite starting virtually from scratch, was Nokia whose Lumia's accounted for ~70% of the Windows Phone sell through share in the US in the 12 months ending January 2013.
It should be noted that in the 3 months ending January 2012 Nokia had only one mid-range WinPhone model (the Lumia 710) available in the US and only for one month, on only one network (T-Mobile USA, the 4th largest US major). Today Nokia's toe-hold on the US smartphone market has been meaningfully expanded and they now have competitive mid-range and high-end smartphones available on 3 major US networks -- the 1st 2nd, and 4th largest.
I've abstracted Kantar's estimated Windows Phone OS share growth in the US, Australia, mainland China, and 4 European country markets below:
YoY 'Windows' OS Smartphone Sales Growth in 7 Countries (Kantar Worldpanel)
3 m/e Jan 2012 3 m/e Jan 2013 YoY Sales YoY Sales
Country Sales Share Sales Share Gain ppt. Growth %
============= =============== ============== ========= =========
Great Britain 2.4% 6.2% +3.8 ppt. +158%
Germany 5.8% 5.1% -0.7 ppt. -12%
France 3.8% 5.7% +1.9 ppt. +50%
Italy 4.5% 14.0% +9.5 ppt. +211%
United States 2.1% 3.2% +1.1 ppt. +52%
Australia 1.8% 3.4% +1.6 ppt. +89%
Urban China na 1.2% na na
>> Smartphone Competition Hots Up
Kantar Worldpanel ComTech
February 25 2013
kantarworldpanel.com
New smartphone sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech shows Windows gaining popularity with consumers, growing its user base in Great Britain by almost 700,000 in the past year – an increase of 240%.
In the three months ending January 2013 Windows’ share of the smartphone market has grown to over 6% in Great Britain, up from 2.4% the previous year, and 14.0% in Italy.
Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, explains: “Nokia is spearheading this growth, with the Lumia 800 the leader among the Windows handsets. However, it is not the only manufacturer benefitting from the increasing popularity of Windows. HTC’s 8X is now the third bestselling Windows device in Great Britain, demonstrating the clear cross-manufacturer opportunity of the platform.
“With Windows now holding respectable market shares across most major European countries, a key question is who is losing out? In Great Britain, 17% of new Windows customers switched from Android, 26% from Symbian, 6% from RIM and just 2% from iOS. 47% were first time smartphone buyers.
“Understanding the source of growth for the Windows platform is crucial to devise and implement the right marketing and sales strategy. The fact that nearly one in five new customers switched from an Android device should give Microsoft, and its partners, confidence that its OS has what it takes to bring the fight to more established platforms. As almost 30% of its customers switch from rival OS’s, the worry that Microsoft will have to rely on attracting the dwindling pool of first time smartphone buyers to drive future growth is reduced.”
Samsung continues to be the number one smartphone brand in Great Britain with 36.8% share of smartphone sales in the latest three months to January, followed by Apple and HTC.
British smartphone penetration has now reached 62%, with smartphones making up 83% of mobile sales. ###
• Kantar ComTech Worldpanel's 12 Month Smartphone Sales and Share Metrics for the United States
kantarworldpanel.com
>> Android Regains Lead Among U.S. Smartphone OS Sales
Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Press Release
New York
February 25, 2013
tinyurl.com
Android regained the top spot as the best selling smartphone platform in the 3 months ending January 2013, according to data released today by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. With 49.4% of smartphone sales, Android realized 6.4% growth compared to the same period last year.
iOS was second during the period with 45.9% of smartphone sales, down 4.7% versus last year. Windows continues to make gains, up to 3.2% of smartphone sales.
Top carrier rankings have also shifted with Verizon regaining its top spot with 35.2% smartphones sold in the 3 months ending January 2013. AT&T falls to second with 28.2% of smartphone sales. Sprint maintains third position with 14.2% share.
The data is derived from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech USA’s consumer panel, which is the largest continuous consumer research mobile phone panel of its kind in the world, conducting more than 240,000 interviews per year in the U.S. alone. ComTech tracks mobile phone behavior and the customer journey, including purchasing of phones, mobile phone bills/airtime, and source of purchase and phone usage. This data is exclusively focused on the sales within this 3 month period rather than market share figures. Sales shares exemplify more forward focused trends and should represent the market share for these brands in future.
Kantar Worldpanel ComTech analyst Mary-Ann Parlato states, “Part of Android’s increase in the latest period can be attributed to its large gain in share within Sprint’s smartphone sales. In the three month period ending October 2012, sales on Sprint were divided almost 50/50 between Android and iOS. However, in the latest period, Android’s share of Sprint sales increased by 22.6% points from 49.3% to 71.9%.”
Average prices paid for Android smartphones on Sprint have also declined over the latest period.
“The 50/50 split we saw in the period ending October 2012 was a result of both iOS and Android sharing similar levels of average price paid (iOS at $130 and Android at $127). Yet this latest period saw a significant price drop to $95 for Android, while iOS increased slightly to $146,” continues Parlato.
One particular phone that led to Android’s gains at Sprint was the Samsung Galaxy SIII, Samsung’s flagship model launched in mid-2012. While this model only captured 14% of smartphones sold at Sprint in the October period, a price drop from $199 to $99 over the holiday season led to the SIII gaining 39% of smartphone sales on Sprint. On T-Mobile, the only other major carrier where Android consistently is the top selling platform, the SIII represented just 18% of smartphone sales in the latest period.
Samsung smartphones represented 60.3% of smartphones sold on Sprint in the January period. Unfortunately for Sprint, the gains made by Android and Samsung did not translate into a large sales growth for Sprint, gaining only 0.8% year on year. ###
- Eric - |
