Samsung regained the top sales spot in the USA in the three month period ending in May 2017, with market share rising to 36.2 percent, according to the latest smartphone OS data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. But this represents a fall of 1.1 percent over the past year, with Apple holding 34 percent share, up 4.7 percent from the previous year.
Kantar also revealed that iOS performance was strong in the USA, Australia and Japan, with Android making gains in the UK, Germany and France. In urban China, there was little year-on-year movement, with Android capturing 80.5 percent of smartphone sales, up one percent from the previous year.
Apple and Samsung continue to dominate smartphone sales, each with five models on the top 10 best-selling list, Kantar says. The Galaxy S8 launch helped Samsung regain the top position in the USA, but the bounce from the flagship launch was “less than would be expected from a full product redesign.”
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus occupy the top two spots, with the Samsung Galaxy S7 in third place, just ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S8 in the number four spot. The launch of the LG G6 had minimal impact, with the G6 now in thirteenth position with a 1.3% share in the US, Kantar says.
In urban China, iOS share remained almost flat at 19.2 percent, down 0.4 percent year-over-year, though an improvement from 16.2 percent in the three months ending April 2017. Huawei remained the market leader as its share grew 2.9 percent to 28.3 percent. Xiaomi performance edged up after a challenging few months, with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X coming in as the fourth-best-selling device in the three months ending May 2017.
“Xiaomi managed to regain some momentum with the Note 4X launch, but the brand is making slow progress with its higher-tier devices,” said Tamsin Timpson, Strategic Insight Director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Asia. “Xiaomi’s average selling price in the three months ending in May was 41 percent below the market ASP at ¥1523, and 33 percent below Huawei’s Honor Brand.”
In EU5 (UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain), Android accounted for 79.5 percent of smartphone sales in the three months ending May 2017, increasing 2.8 percentage points from a year earlier, driven by strong performance in the UK, Germany, and France. iOS share edged up across Germany, France, and Spain, though declines in the UK and Italy meant overall iOS EU5 share remained steady, up 0.2 percent year-on-year to 18.4 percent.
“Samsung performed well in France in the three months ending in May 2017,” Sunnebo noted. “The low- and mid-tier Galaxy J series and A series models enabled Samsung to compete more effectively with home-grown upstart Wiko and global challenger Huawei.
“However, the largest contributor to Android’s EU5 growth came from Huawei, which posted strong sales in all EU5 markets except Spain. Huawei continued to produce good sales volumes, but its flagship P10 struggled to make an impact in sales rankings, with share gains attributed to the older, more value-orientated P8 and P9 Lite models.”
