Research: 25% of smartphones in urban China are iPhones, Samsung overtakes Apple in US

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Research-firm Kantar Worldpanel released a note on Tuesday showing the iPhone is seeing continued growth in China. During the three months ending in January 2015, Apple reachedĀ its highest ever marketshare in the urban parts of the country as one in every four smartphones sold wereĀ an iPhone.Ā 

During this time, Apple was able to secure a 25.4 percent smartphone marketshare – a 4.5 percent gain over the same period in 2014 – in urban China. This compares to Android’s 72.8 percent marketshare.

The iPhone 6 in urban China was the best selling phone in the three months ending in January with a share of 9.5 percent. Xiaomi, often called the “Apple of China”, had several smartphones in the top 10 chart with the RedMi Note its best selling device and the second most popular product behind the iPhone 6, according to data from Kantar.

Apple has long stressed the importance of China to its bottom line. Tim Cook, CEO of the world’s most valuable company, recently said Apple is putting significant investments in building out Apple Stores in the country.

In the US, Samsung has regained its top spot over Apple with a marketshare of 51.9 percent, after losing it during the holiday quarter of 2014.Ā The Galaxy S5 remained the second best selling smartphone, with half the share of the iPhone 6, which held its number one position.

Samsung is releasing it Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones in April, as it looks to capture more marketshare.

Further research shows thatĀ 13.9 percent of iOS customers in the US switched over from an Android device in January ā€“ up from 12.1% in the three-month ending in December.

ā€œAcross key global markets Appleā€™s momentum generally continued from last month, although Android was able to slow down the decrease in share in some countries such as Germany, Spain and France where its sales had started to look like they were in free fall,ā€ Kantar wrote.

Source: Kantar