Kantar: iPhone 6s/7/Plus were 3 most popular smartphones in U.S. in November

Kantar Worldpanel previously said that iOS achieved its strongest growth and the highest market share in the United States in more than two years. In its latest survey, the market intelligence company found out that iPhone’s share of the U.S. smartphone market grew 6.4 percent year-on-year in the three months ending in November 2016.

iPhone 6s, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were the country’s three most popular smartphones during November, with the handsets taking share from Google’s Android platform in most markets globally.

iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 6s took a combined 31.3 percent share at the beginning of the holiday period. Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge were the fourth and fifth best-selling phones in the U.S., with Samsung capturing 28.9 percent of U.S. smartphone shipments. Google’s new Pixel phones captured 1.3 percent of sales during the period, but that wasn’t enough to make up for Android’s decreasing U.S. share over the past year.

Although this was Android’s sixth consecutive decline in U.S., it’s still the nation’s top smartphone platform with a 55.3 percent share of the market versus a 43.5 percent share for iOS. Verizon booked nearly a quarter of all U.S. smartphone sales during the Black Friday period.

“Buyers were motivated by Verizon’s promotions on both Apple and Samsung’s top phones, including offers of free iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Galaxy S7 phones after trade-in and purchase requirements were met,” said Lauren Guenveur, Consumer Insight Director for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

In the United Kingdom, iOS captured an even higher 9.1 percent of sales at the expense of Windows-driven handsets for a 48.3 percent of the country’s smartphone market. iOS’s share was on the rise in other major markets, too, including in Australia, France, Italy, Japan and Spain.

With the exception of Italy, Android lost share in all of these countries. In France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Great Britain, Android accounted for 72.4 percent of smartphone sales during this period, with iOS at 24.6 percent (Windows’ share declined to 2.8 percent)

The only markets where Apple lost share: Germany (-3.1 percent versus Android’s 6.5 percent growth) and China. In China, iPhone’s share dropped 5.4 percent due to strong competition from local brands although iPhone 7 outsold Oppo’s R9 in urban China (R9 captured 12.9 percent of sales).

Nearly 80 percent of all smartphones sold in urban China during the three months ending November 2016 were Android, as local brands continued to dominate the market. Huawei captured 25 percent of all sales, but its share declined 3.1 percentage points from the three-month period ending October 2016.

Although iOS did gain 2.8 percentage points in urban China over the previous three-month period due to strong sales of iPhone 7,  the software platform was down year-on-year, going from 25.3 percent in the three month period ended November 2015 to a 19.9 percent share in the in the three month period ended November 2016.

By comparison, Android dominated in China with a commanding 79.9 percent share. China, home to population of 1.33 billion people, is Apple’s second-biggest market in terms of revenue.

The holiday period is always strong for Apple so it’ll be interesting seeing whether or not demand for latest iPhones will level out in the first quarter of this year.

Source: Kantar Worldpanel