Apple’s iPhone 4S Grabs U.S. Market Share
Thursday, January 19th, 2012Apple’s share of the U.S. smartphone market has risen dramatically in the wake of Apple’s October launch of the iPhone 4S — and with the mobile OS system gap between Apple’s iOS and Google Android narrowing sharply in December, according to a new U.S. mobile user survey released by Nielsen on Wednesday.
Android’s mobile OS market share fell from 61.6 percent in October to 46.9 percent in December, Nielsen said. By contrast, Apple’s iOS market share climbed from 25.1 percent to 44.5 percent during the same period.
Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster and Andrew Murphy now believe that Apple’s fourth-quarter iPhone sales were stronger than the investment firm had previously projected.
“Our previous estimate of 30 million could prove to be conservative,” Munster and Murphy wrote in a Tuesday investor note. “We are raising our estimate by 600,000 units to 30.6 million.”
Commanding a Premium Price
About 46 percent of U.S. mobile consumers overall owned smartphones during the final quarter of 2011, according to Nielsen. Furthermore, 60 percent of the survey respondents who acquired a new mobile device within the last three months said they elected to choose a smartphone over a feature phone.
Among smartphone users overall, Nielsen reports that consumer adoption of Android models continued to lead the field in December with a 46.3 percent share of its survey respondents. Still, the iPhone’s 88 percent year-over-year unit shipment growth and average selling price, or ASP, of $640, according to Piper Jaffray, demonstrate that plenty of consumers were willing to pay a hefty premium for Apple’s red hot device during last year’s fourth quarter.
Much the same trend is playing out in other regional markets around the world, including Europe. “The iPhone 4S is the most expensive,” confirmed Francisco Jeronimo, a research manager at IDC.
Samsung’s Galaxy Note comes closest to matching the…
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