New research shows once again that Apple has had a phenomenal end of the year, with their newest iPhones selling in droves and driving the company’s marketshare.
The latest batch of data comes from Counterpoint Research and it shows that not only did Apple increase their numbers of customers in their traditionally strong markets, such as the EU and the US, but the company also saw tremendous gains in important Asian territories.
In fact Apple has gained so much marketshare in parts of Asia, including South Korea, Samsung’s home turf, that most of its competitors should be running scared just about now.
The larger iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus proved to be a huge success in Japan, China and South Korea. In the latter, where Samsung has traditionally been king, Apple managed to more than double its marketshare jumping from less than 15% back in the summer to over 33% in November. Apple surpassed LG and now holds second place in the country with Samsung’s own marketshare declining by 14% in the same period from 60 to 46 percentage points.
Tom Kang, research director for mobile devices at Counterpoint explained:
No foreign brand has gone beyond the 20% market share mark in the history of Korea’s smartphone industry. It has always been dominated by the global smartphone leader, Samsung. But iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have made a difference here, denting the competition’s phablet sales.
Apple also saw its marketshare surge in Japan, up to 51% in November while in China the US company managed to take 3rd place behind Lenovo and Xiaomi. At the same time Samsung dropped from 1st place to 4th, bleeding marketshare and margins at the same time.
Samsung has seen its profits decline more than 60% compared to last year, while its marketshare has dropped steeply. All the while the company has tried to reorganize and reinvest in their core business while also pushing out new products in an effort to stem the tide.
Source: WSJ
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