Kantar Worldpanel: iPhone X Anticipation Hurt Apple Share

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According to Kantar Worldpanel the late release of the iPhone X hurt Apple market share in key markets during the 3 months ending October 2017, with Android taking advantage of the situation.

iPhone KantarAndroid gained 4.3 percentage points in the big 5 European markets (and 8.2% in the USA) during period. The analyst says such a drop in iPhone volume share was "somewhat inevitable" when comparing the non-flagship iPhone 8 with the 2016 flagship iPhone 7. One also has to keep in mind at least some customers postponed their iPhone purchase in order to compare the 8 with the X, before deciding whether the premium demanded by the overhauled device is worth it or not.

That said, as of October 2017 35.3% of the Apple installed base across Europe and the USA has owned their iPhone for over 2 years-- up from 30.1% a year earlier. Such a total signifies "considerable" pent-up demand for a new iPhone, and Kantar Worldpanel expects the higher ASP of the iPhone X to make up for a dip in sales of older iPhone models.

Interestingly, urban China remains a bright spot for Apple, with share growing during the 3 month period by 0.5% to 17.4%. The top 5 vendors-- namely Huawei, Xiaomi, Apple, Vivo and Oppo-- make 91% of the Chinese market. The rest of the competition, such as Meizu, LeTV, Coolpad, ZTE and Lenovo, are struggling, as does Samsung with share falling to just 2.2%.

Go Later iPhone X Release Hurts Apple Share