iPhones fell to just 12 percent of worldwide marketshare in Q3, claims a new report from Strategy Analytics — totting up the figures for what it claims was the fastest growth period for smartphones in one year.
Android phones, on the other hand, captured a record 88 percent of global smartphones shipments during the three month period. As for BlackBerry and Microsoft Windows Phone? Best not to ask, really!
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“Android’s domination of global smartphone shipments remained strong in Q3 2016, with a record 88 percent of all smartphones now running Google’s OS,” Strategy Analytics executive director Neil Mawston said.
“Android’s gain came at the expense of every major rival platform. Apple iOS lost ground to Android and dipped to 12 percent share worldwide in Q3 2016, due to a lackluster performance in China and Africa. BlackBerry and Microsoft Windows Phone have all but disappeared due to strategic shifts, while Tizen and other emerging platforms softened as a result of limited product portfolios and modest developer support.”
Overall, global smartphone shipments grew 6 percent annually from 354.2 million units in Q3 2015 to 375.4 million in Q3 2016. As is to be expected with the relatively mature smartphone industry, most of the new growth came from low-cost handsets in emerging markets across Asia and Africa Middle East — mainly in countries like India and South Africa.
So is this something Apple should be worried about? On its own, global market share is a pretty meaningless statistic. Smartphone shipments also don’t necessarily tell the story since there is no guaranteed correlation with sales — and especially not profits. Pitting Android against iOS is also a silly comparison, since iOS is only available on Apple-manufactured devices.
Furthermore, as Apple pushes more and more into the Services sector, the idea of Apple having to be a hardware sales-driven company becomes less important than ever.
Photo: Strategy Analytics.
While Apple has made efforts to grow its market in emerging markets like India, it’s also not shown itself willing (and why should it?) to cut its profit margins to make sales that wouldn’t have an enormous positive impact on its profitability?
Ultimately, it will be interesting to see if smartphone adoption in these countries is a bit like computer sales during the 1990s, in both the consumer and education markets. In that case, low-cost companies like Dell briefly rocketed past Apple in terms of sales, only for customers to later switch back to Apple as their tastes refined.
How do you see smartphone growth playing out in the years to come? Leave your comments below.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
50 responses to “Cheapo Androids erode iPhone market share globally”
There is nothing wrong with “cheapo” android phones. I use one as a satnav for work . I also have an iPad Air two and a nexus 6p. Out of all of them I’m thinking of selling my iPad. Your contempt makes you sound like a fool.
Telling the truth meshes someone a fool?
These market share studies are meaningless because they lump everything together. It’s like saying Chevy sells more cars than Porsche, so Porsche must be somehow “losing” market share.
I’d say a more apt comparison is Tesla cars losing market share to “all other non-electric cars.” It’s like ok cool? The encompasses countless other companies. You don’t compare 1 company to tons of others.
Talk to me about iPhone and Galaxy sales. iPhone and Pixel. Not iPhone and hundreds of phones that kinda run the same OS.
That same logic applies when apple worshippers bring up profits.
Apple gets everything from iOS whereas Samsung and others share Android profits.
Err. Apple worshippers. Right. So um, news flash, were talking about business. And we’re comparing product sales. And product market share. So it makes sense to discuss in the terms I described above. To purposefully skew it any other way is to make thing about measuring our dicks just for bragging rights.
I’m guessing you didn’t go to business school.
After 5 years I decided to leave my office work and I never felt this good… I started doing a job from comfort of my house, for this company I found on-line, several hrs /a day, and I earn much more than i did on my old work… My last month pay-check was for 9k dollars… Awesome thing about this is the more time i got with my family… SECURE47.COM
Certainly the vast majority of Apple’s revenue comes from iOS. However that has nothing to do with profit from smartphones. Once again, Apple trounces everyone else combined in making money from that market. Other than Google, practically every other smartphone maker is racing to the bottom in price because it’s the only way they can compete. Meanwhile Apple has the highest retention of existing customers (something Samsung is finding out shouldn’t be counted on when selling a commodity product) and most studies show that there are more Android users switching to iOS than the other way around.
So more money, more profit, and more loyalty to a brand. I wonder what position all those Android phone makers would prefer to be in?
This article isn’t about which brand of phone is more popular, it’s about which OS is more popular.
Which I feel is a rather useless and meaningless statistic.
Hands down that’s Android, but what difference does that make to companies that can barely make a profit from each sale if any at all. Lack of profit means less support and more cut corners for each device in that fun race to the bottom. That race means that sometimes serious mistakes are made in manufacturing.
Look at all those Windows OS computer companies that sold more computers than Apple since like forever. How many big names have abandoned that market because there was no money in it? How many have had to sell out to other companies before going belly up?
Saying “meshes” makes you a fool.
Market share is relevant because it shows what consumers prefer and they clearly prefer Android.
If there was only 1 Android OEM instead of many–iOS would not exist anymore.
It’s a preference based on relative cost. More people eat at McDonalds but that’s hardly a standard of quality over say Five Guys or Steak Shack. All of which sell essentially the same thing
Actually, there are close to 1 Billion active iOS devices worldwide, 64% of Google’s 1.4 billion active Android devices (tablets + phones) and close to 50% the size of Google + AOSP forked Android.
This clearly shows that most people around the world who can afford 650 dollars for a mobile device choose Apple compared to the rest of the world’s population who can only afford a cheap Android.
>”There is nothing wrong with “cheapo” android phones.”
Only if you’re happy with 2.1 fps in 3D games.
Unfortunately, the average Android phone sold around the world like the 200 dollar Moto G or the Blu Life One X2 is 5x to 10x slower than the iPhone 7. You pay for what you get.
AnTuTu (higher is better)
iPhone 7 Plus = 179,811
Samsung Galaxy S7 = 134,000
HTC 10 = 131,088
Nexus 6P = 60,007
Blu Life One X2 = 43,984
Moto G = 17,014
GeekBench:
DEVICE…………….SINGLE-CORE…….MULTI-CORE
iPhone 7/7 Plus……………..3,450…….5,630
Samsung Galaxy S7……….1,806…….5,213
Samsung Galaxy Note 7….1,786……5,228
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge..1,744……5,203
Huawei P9 ……………………..1,729……4,735
OnePlus 3……………………….1,698……4,015
Google Pixel…………………1,648……4,121
BLU Life One X……………..629…….2842
Moto G 2015………………….428……1,070
GFXBench T-Rex HD on-screen (higher is better)
iPhone 7 Plus = 58.2 fps
Samsung Galaxy S7 = 53 fps
HTC 10 = 47 fps
Nexus 6P = 36 fps
Moto G = 11 fps
BLU Life One X = 3.4 fps
GFXBench Manhattan on-screen (higher is better)
iPhone 7 = 59.1 fps
Samsung Galaxy S7 = 29 fps
HTC 10 = 13 fps
Nexus 6P = 17 fps
Moto G = 3.9 fps
BLU Life One X = 2.1 fps
Basemark OS II Overall
iPhone 7 = 3,862
Samsung Galaxy S7 = 1,943
HTC 10 = 1,806
Nexus 6P = 1,894
BLU Life One X = 828
Moto G = 581
88% of Android gets you 15% of world’s smartphone profit, while 12% of iPhone gets you 85% of world’s smartphone profits. So, which one will you choose ? market share or profit ?
I’m gonna go ahead and support the companies that make products for every income level, not just rich people in California.
iPhones cost just $25/month
So? That’s a lot of money for some people, especially in countries that aren’t as affluent as the United States. Gallup estimates that the median per-capita household income is $2,920, or $243 month. I’ll support the companies that make great phones for those more affluent and still market to those less fortunate.
Very few (if any) countries have the iPhone cheaper than the US.
If someone can’t afford $25/month, they probably shouldn’t have any smart phone of any kind.
In some developing countries people live off $1/day, boy those are the poorest of the poor. Even in poorer nations there are cities, large cities with all the things you’d find in large cities in weather nations and those people can easily afford a $25/month phone
Phones that start at $399 aren’t affordable for a lot of people. At least Android OEMs are willing to sell cheaper devices to get them into the hands of less affluent users.
They’re not “willing” to sell them cheaper, they HAVE to because otherwise no one would buy them.
At least they’re offering devices at that price point, though. A cheap, flimsy, slow smartphone is still better than a phone someone can’t afford.
Good for them. Apple has chosen to not compete in that area. Neither fact makes one bad or better.
$399 phones that last for 4 years are better than buying 4 $100 phones and throwing them away every year.
So why are shares of apple stock at $100 while Google is over $700?
How much profit would apple make if other OEMs could sell iOS? How much profit would Google get if they was the only seller of Android?
You’re like what, 14 years old and don’t understand that?
You are 8 years old ? Apple’s share were at $700 and were split 1:7
Google as the only Android oem would have made the same like all 1000 oem combined. Except for Samsung all other oems lose $B.. each year on Android.
I know about the split. Iv knew about it before you did.
Before the split, apple stock had fallen to $400 on at least 3 occasions! Who does that? Lose almost 50% value 3 times in just over a years time.
When apple stock was stalled at $700+ Google’s went beyond $1,200/share!!
Google also did a split and they did it before apple–so here we at after the split, Google is more than what apple was before apple did a split.
For the past year apple struggled at $100/share or less. They only recently got a bump above that BUT come Jan-April we will see what we always see from apple, stock prices fall sharply.
Apple iPhone Grabs 104% Of Smartphone Industry Profit In Q3
Apple’s (AAPL) smartphone market share by unit shipments is declining, but it continues to dominate where it counts: profits. BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long estimates that Apple accounted for 103.6% of smartphone industry operating profits in the third quarter. Its share is over 100% because other vendors lost money in the business, resulting in Apple having more smartphone profit than the industry netted overall. In the year-earlier period, Apple grabbed 90% of smartphone profits,…
https:// finance .yahoo .com/m/edd4b240-1262-3019-872e-b19fe25a749e/ss_apple-iphone-grabs-104%25-of.html
Apple profits do what for you exactly?
Everytime the subject comes up of Android vs iOS or anything vs apple–some iDiot pulls up his skirt and shows us his p***y talking about Apple’s profits.
I have long had a better camera, better display, more sensors, more options, more powerful OS, customizations and flexibility and every iDiot on the internet yells back “apple profits”
I get new and exciting products All Year from Android OEM’s and you get to talk about Apple’s earnings and wishing the next iPhone will have what 4 & 5 year old Android phones have.
There have been new features and technologies, that were added to the iPhone first.
Here are some examples: a 64 bit processor architecture, an OS with 64 bit support, SIRI voice assistant, a fingerprint reader that actually worked, 3D touch.
You’d have had to wait a year or more, after these features appeared on the iPhone, before you could purchase an Android based phone with them. And in some cases, the implementation of these features on an Android phone sucked. Example: Samsung’s first stab at a fingerprint reader, was inferior to that introduced on the iPhone 5S.
“I have long had a better camera, better display, more sensors, more options, more powerful OS, customizations and flexibility”
Sure you have…just not with one phone
Do you know the difference between a 2-1 split and a 7-1 split? I don’t think you do. Do you know how companies are valued based on stock price? I don’t think you do.
You keep jumping from argument to argument (especially after being spanked on your lack of knowledge) hoping to score…I don’t know, some relevant point? Good luck with that.
Google has split their stock twice. In neither case did those splits dilute the voting power of the top shareholders because in both cases they were NON-VOTING shares. So the top brass hangs on to all the power unless they sell those Class A shares which would be crazy since they received a like number of lower class shares on each split. So assuming they wouldn’t sell those Class-A shares, they received roughly $1400 in value for each existing share based on $700 per share.
Apple has had 4 stock splits since 1987. three were 2-1 and the last was 7-1. If you had shares purchased prior to 1987, each of those shares would be worth 56 shares today. 56 times $100 is $5600. That naturally doesn’t take into account what was paid for each share, but lets say you bought in 1997 when it was a low of $12 and you bought 100 shares for $1200. You would now have 2800 shares (3 of those 4 stock splits) worth $280,000.
I don’t care about what happened in 1987 and I’m not doing a Google search, I’m only going of memory and I clearly remember how apple was supposed to breach $1000/share but fell from $700 to $400 on 3 occasions over about an 18 month period. I also remember Google shares at $1200 and after their split which they did before apple–their shares are worth more after the split than Apple before.
In addition, apple wasn’t worth in 1987 what they are today (in today’s dollars of course) and by the 90’s they went bankrupt and got saved by Microsoft–not because Microsoft was a good guy, but because they was facing an anti trust lawsuit and saved apple as part of a settlement.
If it wasn’t for MS money, you’d never heard of apple.
With the iPhone responsible for 80% of their revenue–they’d fall forever if and when the iPhone stops making money for them.
I already told you much of what happened stock-wise with both companies and gave you examples of what each stock is worth relative to share price today. How much a stock is worth depends on at what point you buy it, so comparing share prices without context is irrelevant.
Apple never went bankrupt by the way though they were certainly in major financial meltdown in the late 90s. The anti-trust suit was very much a part of why Microsoft invested, but the amount was insignificant. They bought 150 million in non-voting shares of Apple stock and gave an undisclosed amount to settle a long standing lawsuit related to MS using code right out of QuickTime. To put it in perspective, Apple had lost a total of nearly 2 billion US dollars between 1996 and 1998. Buying 150 million in shares meant little to nothing. The most important part of that deal was Microsoft agreeing to new versions of MS Office.
Lastly, Apple has nearly 1/4 of a trillion dollars in cash that they can put their hands on (even if it can’t be brought back into the US without a huge tax). Even if the iPhone was cancelled tomorrow and they never sold or profited another day, at their current rate of expenditure they could last for years.
Google makes zero profit directly from Android as they don’t sell licenses. They make their money in all that nifty information you give them that they sell to others.
I know, that’s why I said if Google was the only Android OEM they would be making many times more than Apple.
I don’t think they knew how popular Android would be, they may have kept it all to themselves
Haha. ..even after 10 years google struggling tomake hardware. Do u think all oems like samsung will sit amd relax and let google take money. ..too much blind faith in google ability. .. Glassholes?
Goggle isn’t hardware company just like apple isn’t a software and services company.
Google will abandon Android one day, don’t know when but they are. Their new approach will be too control both hardware and software. Samsung knows this, that’s why a few years ago they began to prepare when they developed Tizen.
I think 10 years from now Android and iOS will make room for 2 or 3 other OS’s from Google, Samsung and Microsoft.
Except that without all the cheap handsets, Android may not have been as popular as it is today. There are (and were) many other mobile OS’s out there and chances are one of them would have gone the licensing route, which would lead to a race to the bottom in price as they competed, which leads to the very division we have today. Since Google’s motive isn’t profit from hardware or software or services, it only makes sense that they went the direction they did.
Cheap handsets?
First, not everybody needs or wants a flagship phone.
Second, a “cheap” Android phone still has good build quality, looks great and does things and works in ways your iPhone–even with jailbreak never will.
Android is what people like and want, OEMs like money so they make phones for every budget so tell me what’s wrong with that?
Samsung takes the lion’s share of Android sales and half their phones are Galaxy S & Note models and there’s nothing cheap about them.
Samsung’s mid range phones cost half as much as Galaxy S & Note but with specs similar to or just less than an iPhone.
“First, not everybody needs or wants a flagship phone.”
Totally agree, but wasn’t the point I was making
“Second, a “cheap” Android phone still has good build quality, looks great and does things and works in ways your iPhone–even with jailbreak never will.”
Never say never, but Android has more than its fair share of compromises, many dealing with security. Not so much with Google’s own phones, but with 3rd party OEMs. Almost none of them will be upgraded or updated with necessary (and yes, iOS has security issues too, but nearly all can be updated) security fixes because carriers and manufacturers don’t want that, they want you to buy a new phone instead.
“Android is what people like and want, OEMs like money so they make phones for every budget so tell me what’s wrong with that?”
Nothing wrong with that, but don’t pretend that people buying cheap phones wouldn’t prefer a better one if they could afford it including an iPhone. There’s a reason beyond fanboyism why iOS has the highest retention rate for repeat buyers.
“Samsung takes the lion’s share of Android sales and half their phones are Galaxy S & Note models and there’s nothing cheap about them.”
You can say that with a straight face after the debacle of the Galaxy Note 7? Samsung cuts every corner they can even with their flagship devices and it has bitten them on the ass not once but twice. The first time with a higher percentage than normal phones and batteries catching on fire (To be fair, this happens with every phone including the iPhone because stuff happens with small electronics with large batteries) and then instead of actually fixing the problem, they made it worse by saying “everything OK now!” and having their replacement devices also go up in flames. Their OWN engineers TOLD them they couldn’t figure out what the problem was but management in trying to save the brand name rushed it out. It’s SO bad that you can’t even board a plane with one and Samsung had to send out fireproof shipping boxes (ground freight only) to customers to return them.
“Samsung’s mid range phones cost half as much as Galaxy S & Note but with specs similar to or just less than an iPhone.”
Funny thing about specs, they’re practically meaningless in the real world when dual-core iPhones with half the RAM still out perform other’s flagship phones as verified by many independent tests.
I’m not surprised by anything you put in here. Common practice to try and change the argument when you’re losing. You talking about in the OP that Google would be making much more money if they were the only ones to make Android devices. That got blown up since as I sad, the biggest reason there is as many as there are is because of all the different companies that make them. Your ill-informed stock argument likewise got blown up. And I just blew up your latest round of nonsense. Maybe you change your Disqus name to Note 7?
Going around calling people stupid and at the same time showing you don’t know a damn thing about the stock market? Priceless
Apples market cap: $585 billion.
Googles market cap: $535 billion.
iDiot I never said I know the stock market, point out where I did.
Any clown can Google up something and pretend to know what they’re talking about. I clearly said that I was speaking from memory–what I know to be true because I read about it when it happened.
It’s amusing to see the desperate defending of Apple and discrediting any sort of research/report that brings some real numbers. Why is there a need to defend any company or OS at all?
I am an iPhone user but I am definitely having some facepalms while reading someone’s opinion how Apple’s sooo superior. Yes, it’s superior in overpricing and profiting from hardcore marketing and washed brains that’s are programmed to react when seeing an apple..
Let’s be realistic folks, Android phones are good these days and their OEM’s innovate all the time. Why bashing them? Let’s pressure Apple to bring something new and innovative in stead. We got water resistance in 2016! (Better late than never though)
There are a lot android phones that don’t cost as much as an iPhone and for regular non-techy folks they get the jobs done really good. So why would they pay €900 when they can get a great device for under €400?
That’s a good reason to buy a cheaper phone.
I’m always having a hard time when paying 900 euros for a new iPhone every two years or so, but I want to pay that price because I need reliability and I’m used to iOS so switching would be painful the first month or so.
I have the money for it, but someone doesn’t and that doesn’t make him or her less worth, as some iPhone users like to point out indirectly.
Switching isn’t as painful as you think. I switched in 2011 when Android phones were ugly, Android slow and the Market (as it was called) was a mess–BUT, I switched and loved it. I’ve tried 3 times since then to use iOS and to be 100% honest, it takes me just a few minutes to realize it’s not for me, it just doesn’t have the freedom and flexibility that Android has and I refuse to use a phone that I can’t use the way I want to.
I got the iPhone 6 plus when it came out and it sat in its box unused for 2 years. Got the iPhone 7 pre ordered before launch and it’s still sitting in its box.
If you’re buying iPhones, and letting them sit in the box, then you’re throwing money away essentially, as they loose value with time. I have five friends, who switched from using iPhones to Samsung Android based phones. With in a year, after switching to Android, they had all switched back to an iPhone. To this day, they are all still using iPhones, and none have expressed an interest in going back to using an Android based phone.
I have another friend, I’ve known for 30 years, who works for Verizon, as a cell site engineer. He was a long time user of Android, getting his first Android based phone, back when the iPhone was not compatible with Verizon CDMA network. He switched to iPhone when the 6 came out, and replaced all the Android phones in his family, with iPhones, and hasn’t gone back to Android.
So I think you might be over hyping Android here, as there are many former Android users who love their iPhones.
You know, when technology reaches it’s momentary peak, the only innovation left to make is affordability. As long as Apple doesn’t make a phone for the masses, namely something between 150-200 dollars, it’s market share will keep on dropping like the proverbial mike. Or sink like the proverbial hammer.
Except that iPhone sales are not “dropping like the proverbial mike”. Q3 2016 merely represents the model “S” year seasonal lull before the launch of the iPhone 7.
iPhone sales have been increasing each and every year since launch:
iPhone Sales:
2007 = 3.8M
2008 = 13.7M
2009 = 25.1M
2010 = 47.5M
2011 = 93.1M
2012 = 135.8M
2013 = 153.4M
2014 = 192.6M
2015 = 231.3M
Apple will no doubt see a few less iPhone sales over all 2016 than the blockbuster 2015, but with analysts projecting sales of 74m for Q4, Apple will probably see sales for 2016 of around 221m.
That would be down a mere 4% compared to the gigantic 2015, but up a large 15% compared to 2015.
So much for sinking “like the proverbial hammer”.
With Apple’s close to loyal 1 billion strong active iOS installed base which is 64% the size of Google Android and close to 50% the size of Google + AOSP, Apple has little to fear.