> Outside US iPhones are nowhere nearly as popular. In many markets Android phones have about 90% of the market share
In my opinion, with the possible exception of South Korea, that is purely a matter of apple's global pricing vs local purchasing power and a huge number of those android users would have an iPhone if they could afford it.
"Most people buy into Android phones because iPhone is only available on 2 carriers. If iPhone was available on all carriers, Android phone sales would be much, much less."
Sales figures in countries outside the USA where the iphone is on all networks shows that statement to be extremely unlikely to be true in the USA
> Apple now has enough market share, especially in mobile
Not really. Depending on the country, the iPhone has between 10 and 20% market share and they are shrinking month after month. Android is on its way to becoming a monopoly, for sure.
> brilliant if your family and friends are all on iPhones, which I'm pretty sure is fairly common in most Western countries
iOS market share is 60% in the US which is the highest worldwide, and only above 50% in a handful of other countries (UK, Japan, Oz, Canada)[0]. If you have any friends who are not rich, or are European or South American, there's a good chance they won't iMessage you but try to add you on WhatsApp.
>> claiming more than half of the market in May 2020.
Market share /= number of devices.
Apple owns the "market", ie the money. Apple owners spend vastly more on their OS (via playstore). Android might be running on vastly more devices, but the people who matter, the rich people with money to spend on camera apps, spend that money via iPhones.
We live in a world where whales matter more than customers. The legions of android users who use their phones to make phonecalls, as internet browsers, and as navigational tools ... they don't matter as much as any single iPhone user who regularly drops a few hundred every month on eye candy iPhone backgrounds.
> iOS is starting to regain marketshare from Android.
There is zero evidence of that and plenty of evidence that it's the opposite. Android is activating more than twice as many phones as the iPhone every day, it's a gap that the iPhone will not be filling for at least five years, if ever.
Not in the US. Apple has 60% of the mobile market compared to Google's 40%[1], and Apple's App Store is responsible for 100% more revenue than the Play Store.
>While they do occasionally have a great quarter, I don't think they've ever cracked 50% share in any major market in any calendar year. Ever.
There is a different between Sales Unit Market Share, and actual usage market share.
As long as Apple user dont migrate to Android, and the total smartphone user in US being the constant ( most adult already got a smartphone ). Even if Apple sold zero smartphone in a whole year. They will still have the same market shares.
> I don't think there are any more first-time buyers of phones left in the world
I might believe you if you said the US, but given how low iPhone penetration is outside the US, combined with how many new people use the Internet for the first time each day in India alone (100,000,000 per year, most of that being accessed over a mobile device), it's clear that smartphones haven't hit 100% potential market penetration the way "food" has.
In my opinion, with the possible exception of South Korea, that is purely a matter of apple's global pricing vs local purchasing power and a huge number of those android users would have an iPhone if they could afford it.
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