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Apple's iPhone Taking Hits On Multiple Fronts

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IDC released its latest findings for the smartphone market with information on the total market along with Android and Windows sub-segments. I have also included results from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) survey on first time and repeat smartphone buyers, customer satisfaction from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and comScore ’s June survey of U.S. smartphone users. Note that my family and I own Apple shares.

Android has almost 80% of the smartphone market

IDC’s latest report shows iPhone’s market share continuing to decline. In the December 2011 and March 2012 quarters Apple had a 23% share of the smartphone market. It declined to 17% in the June 2012 quarter but rebounded to 21% in the December 2012 quarter (due to the iPhone 5 becoming available). For the first half of 2013 iPhone’s share fell to 17% in the March quarter and 13% in the June quarter.

While a distant third at 3.7% share Windows displaced BlackBerry and increased its edge from 30 basis points in the March quarter to 80 basis points or 0.8% of share in the June quarter.

I have created a Google Doc with a link for to fairly detailed data from comScore, IDC, Kantar and Strategy Analytics.

Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, August 7, 2013

Samsung is the 600 pound gorilla in the Android market with 39% share, however its share is down from 44% last year. Both LG and Lenovo gained over one point of market share but are still a long ways away from Samsung with 6.5% and 6.1%, respectively. Huawei and ZTE each lost about half a point of market share and are at 5.4%.

Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, August 7, 2013

Nokia retained over 80% share of the Windows smartphone market and it is interesting to see Samsung shipping one million Windows phones in the quarter. While this is only just over 1% of the company’s smartphone shipments it is a smart move on Samsung’s part to diversify its portfolio in case Windows can deliver a quality solution and diversify beyond Android.

Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, August 7, 2013

First time smartphone buyers favor Android

CIRP performed a survey that tracked first time and repeat smartphone buyers. What it found is that first time buyers are more likely to buy an Android phone but that repeat buyers are more likely to go with Apple. Androids first time preference is probably due to multiple reasons including larger screen sizes, lower price points and wider distribution.

However, Apple is in a decent position in that it captures almost 50% of repeat buyers. While I’m sure Apple would like to have a higher percentage of first time buyers it is hamstrung due to its limited product portfolio. Since a smartphone owner eventually becomes a repeat buyer Apple is in a slightly better position long-term.

Source: CIRP, August 5, 2013

Samsung leads in customer satisfaction

Samsung’s Galaxy S III and Note II were the leading smartphones in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) with scores of 84 on a scale of 0 to 100. Apple was a close second with the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 obtaining either an 81 or 82 score.

ACSI also surveyed the Korean market and found that Apple had a higher score than Samsung. Since the survey was taken before President Obama overturned an International Trade Commission's ban on older iPhone and iPad models it will be interesting to see if that has an effect on how Koreans feel about Apple products.

Source: American Customer Satisfaction Index

Apple gaining share in the U.S.

comScore released its June 2013 smartphone data for the U.S. and it shows Apple continuing to gain share. While iPhones’ 39.9% share trails Android at 52% the 39.9% is the highest I have recorded going back to October 2011. Apple also has not had a decrease in its share going back to February 2012 when it was 30.2%. Over the same sixteen months Android's share has risen a bit from 50.1% to 52.0%. BlackBerry continues to lose share even though it has launched the Q10 and Z10 and Microsoft seems to have settled in at a 3% share.

Source: comScore MobiLens

Samsung has increased its market share every month but one since September last year moving from 18.7% to 23.7%. HTC’s One doesn’t seem to be gaining any incremental traction for the company and  Motorola will try and stop its share decline with the Moto X since it has seen its share decrease from 9.8% in September last year to 7.2% in June.

Source: comScore MobiLens

Follow me on Twitter @sandhillinsight. Find my other Forbes posts here.