Apple Growth Continues to Outpace Android

Consumer Electronics

Published: September 30, 2013 9:20 am

Last Updated: April 27, 2020 4:18 pm

The Android operating system from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) claims about 70% of the market in the five large European economies: the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. But sales growth has slowed and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) are gaining ground more quickly.

According to the latest data from Kantar WorldPanel ComTech, Android is slipping:

After years of increasing market share, Android has now reached a point where significant growth in developed markets is becoming harder to find. Android’s growth has been spearheaded by Samsung, but the manufacturer is now seeing its share of sales across the major European economies dip year on year as a sustained comeback from Sony, Nokia and LG begins to broaden the competitive landscape.

A similar survey in June showed that Apple’s iOS was growing market share faster than Android by a rate of 2.3% to 1.8%.

Perhaps the biggest news is that Windows Phone has hit double-digits in European market share in both France and the United Kingdom, posting 10.8% and 12.0% share, respectively. Kantar notes this is the first time the Microsoft mobile operating system has posted double-digit market share in two major markets.

Kantar also notes that the growth in Windows Phone share is “driven by Nokia’s expansion into the low and mid range market.” Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) has agreed to sell its mobile business to Microsoft for $7.1 billion.

In the United States, Apple’s market share of 39.3% is expected to “spike” as the new iPhones hit the market. Kantar also believes that the addition of the iPhones to the lineup at Japan’s largest wireless carrier “makes it likely that Apple will pull ahead of Android” in Japan.

The loser is BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ: BBRY) which gets just 2.4% of European sales and 1.8% of U.S. sales.

The following chart from Kantar shows market share in Europe’s five largest markets for the three-month period ending in August.

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