Following countless reports of supply constraints, it wasn’t much of a surprise when Apple announced that the iPhone X launch would be delayed to early November. If Apple was able to launch the phone on time, it probably would have, because delaying the release by over a month had a significant impact on the company’s market share.
According to a new report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, iOS share dipped in several major markets in the three months ending in October 2017 while Android made gains. In the United States, iOS market share dropped 7.6% as Android share jumped 8.2%. iOS share also fell in the five biggest European markets, as well as in Japan.
“It was somewhat inevitable that Apple would see volume share fall once we had a full comparative month of sales taking into account the non-flagship iPhone 8 vs. the flagship iPhone 7 from 2016,” said Dominic Sunnebo, Global Business Unit Director for Kantar. “This decrease is significant and puts pressure on the iPhone X to perform.”
Although Apple took a hit in the short term by delaying the launch of the iPhone X, the delay will be quickly forgiven if the iPhone X sells as well as Apple expects it to sell. As Sunnebo points out, “it is likely the iPhone X average selling price will more than make up for a dip in sales of older iPhone models.”
Even more promising for Apple is the fact that iOS market share in China actually grew over the three month period that Kantar measured, suggesting that Apple is finally beginning to establish a foothold in a market that has long eluded it. Apple’s 0.5% jump came in the same period that Android actually lost 0.5% of its share.
