Apple's Smartphone Market Share Surge Continues through December on iPhone 4S Strength

Last week, research firm NPD released data showing that Apple's iOS had significantly closed the gap on Android in new U.S. smartphone sales in October and November, narrowing Android's 34 percentage-point lead to just four points in the wake of the iPhone 4S debut.

nielsen_4q11_recent_smartphone_acquirers

Nielsen now takes a look at its own data, showing similar momentum that had carried over through the end of 2011.

Among recent acquirers, meaning those who said they got a new device within the past three months, 44.5 percent of those surveyed in December said they chose an iPhone, compared to just 25.1 percent in October. Furthermore, 57 percent of new iPhone owners surveyed in December said they got an iPhone 4S.

Breaking the data down into monthly surveys of people who had acquired a new smartphone over the previous three months, that iPhone 4S effect resulted in iOS nearly matching Android in share of recent smartphone acquirers as of December.

Given the three-month windows of time covered by each monthly survey, December's data would include at least several weeks of time prior to the iPhone 4S launch. Data for January could thus show even stronger performance by Apple, although some of the early iPhone 4S adopters may fall out of the January sample due to the three-month window having closed, depending on when during the month the data is collected.

Top Rated Comments

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raejae

99 months ago

Siri is a gimmick. The 4S was a bump in specs - not something fully evolutionary in the product line.

Still - there was pent up demand and the fact that you now had Sprint selling the iPhone made a big difference as well.

I get your sarcasm - but it's really not far from the truth.

For somebody who spends 2+ hours a day driving to/from work and communicates mainly via text message, Siri is -not- a gimmick.

This is just one example, but your opinion is not fact. There are many people (myself included) for whom Siri is the killer feature that made them buy the product. I was prepared to hunker down and get another year out of my 3GS until I saw this feature.

Rating: 11 Votes

*LTD*

99 months ago

Just a couple of models achieving this against a veritbale flood of OEMs running a universally-licensed OS.

No surprise, though. Apple's nailed a strategy that lasts over the long term.

Rating: 10 Votes

*LTD*

99 months ago

US != the world.

US = a massive market, and arguably one of the most coveted. The US market can do wonders for your brand power.

It speaks to the strength of Apple products when with just a couple of models they can capture significant share (all under one roof, never mind tons of OEMs.)

Now, given that, imagine what it means for a product like that to capture majority or near-majority share, in the wake of a market flooded by OEMs running a universally-licensed OS.

Rating: 6 Votes

Xenc

99 months ago

Poor BlackBerry.

Rating: 4 Votes

coder12

99 months ago

You should not be using your phone while driving. If anything Siri made things worse not better as now you can feel you can txt while driving.

People will always text and drive, as long as there are cell phones at least. I'd rather have someone watching the road and texting while driving rather than someone staring at their crotch, texting, and driving.

On the other side of things, for those who nay-say against Siri, she certainly rocks when it comes to Speech to Text; seriously, I haven't typed a single message in a long time without using STT.

Rating: 4 Votes

bassfingers

99 months ago

~50% of American smart phone buyers couldn't possibly be buying that phone because it's clearly the best? Nooooo

Rating: 3 Votes

firewood

99 months ago

Irrelevant. Whether there are 1,000,000 phones vs the one iPhone or not - people only buy one phone for themselves.

Absolutely not true, if you know anything about manufacturing and service.

It costs much much more to manufacture complex devices in small quantities than in huge quantities. Furthermore the community of people who can help you with your device (user communities, such as here) and the number of repair people experienced with fixing the device will be massively larger for high volume devices. Just try to find an experienced Bugatti repair person or any spare parts in your neighborhood.

Same with accessories such as cases, and apps skinned or customized for features unique to that single particular device (as opposed to generic apps for the OS).

Rating: 3 Votes

eTron

99 months ago

I signed in just to say... Well said!

Rating: 3 Votes

Bernard SG

99 months ago

Irrelevant. Whether there are 1,000,000 phones vs the one iPhone or not - people only buy one phone for themselves. They either buy an iphone or they buy a non-iPhone. So it doesn't matter how many iPhone models or how many android models there are other than those choosing android can choose from different form factors. But primarily it's IOS vs Android.

Are you basically saying that the only reason to get an Android handset is that you don't like iPhone/iOS, irrespectively of the Android phone's own merits?

Rating: 2 Votes

SandynJosh

99 months ago

Poor BlackBerry.

...and poor WinMo7 that didn't even earn a place on the chart, unless it's that black line at the bottom.

It's interesting that once Verizon and Sprint got the iPhone the demand for any one of the 50+ Android phones has fallen dramatically. Only Samsung with their knockoff iPhone is doing well with Android, and even they have deviated from the Google Android path with a version 2.3 variant.

Well, that's how the Android fractures.

Rating: 2 Votes

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