In a recent research note, Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt said his firm believes smartphone sales may have dipped sequentially during the third quarter of this year, and year-over-year, for the first time ever. McCourt says the change is likely due to consumer anticipation for the iPhone 4S, which made its debut during the fourth quarter. In addition, McCourt argued that a likely decline in Android sales quarter-over-quarter and “only modest growth” year-over-year despite the introduction of a number of new Android handsets, was an “ominous sign for Android vendors.” Read on for more.
“We believe slowdown in Android, Blackberry, [and Windows Phone] sales at AT&T/Verizon likely indicates a reasonable number of customers choosing not to upgrade in Q3, but rather waiting to switch to the iPhone in Q4,” McCourt explained in his note. “The strong initial sales figures for iPhone 4S would seem to back up this assumption.”
McCourt also believes carriers will continue to experiment with lower-priced data plans to increase the adoption of smartphones. According to the most recent data from NPD group, Android accounted for 52% of all smartphones sold in the U.S. during the second quarter. Additionally, Gartner said in August that Android’s global market share was 43.4%, up 25.2 percentage points from the same period last year.
