Clear Geographic Split Shows iPhone 6 Plus Especially Popular With Asian Customers

Thursday November 20, 2014 8:26 am PST by Kelly Hodgkins
Apple's iPhone 6 continues to outsell the iPhone 6 Plus around the world, but the larger-sized phone is proving to be a significant hit in some markets, reports AppLovin in its latest November 2014 report.

According to AppLovin's analytics data, the iPhone 6 outsold the 6 Plus in an 80/20 ratio overall in the first 45 days of availability. While Europe, North America and Australia roughly follow this global sales distribution or lean slightly more heavily toward the iPhone 6, the trend changes in Asia, where the iPhone 6 Plus typically accounts for 35 percent or more of iPhone sales.

applovin_iphone_6_split
South Korea, home to rivals Samsung and LG, is the only Asian country studied with an iPhone 6 Plus adoption rate below 35 percent. The country has a lower 71/29 split, perhaps related to competition from Samsung's Galaxy Series and LG's G3 phone in the large-screen market or simply due to customer preference for other reasons.

The split between iPhone 6 and 6 Plus may still be artificially constrained due to continuing shortages of the larger iPhone 6 Plus, but AppLovin's data offers an interesting glimpse of screen size preferences around the world. The ratio also varies significantly by data source, with a recent survey putting the U.S. ratio at 3:1 in favor of the iPhone 6 over the first four weeks of availability while AppLovin's data points to a 4:1 split.

As discussed by Apple's iPhone marketing chief Greg Joswiak at the Code Conference last month, the true ratio of demand won't be known until supply shortages are alleviated, but he did acknowledge that the ratio varies from country to country with Asian customers typically proving more likely to prefer larger screens, an observation supported by AppLovin's data.

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AdonisSMU
68 months ago
Some people accepted a 6 because the 6+ wasn't available. I want to see what the numbers are in Jan-Mar quarter.
Rating: 19 Votes
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smithrh
68 months ago

Any sociologists out there who want to explain why the Asian demographic prefers the larger device?


Not a sociologist by any means, but things I've heard that resonate:

• Better wireless than wired infrastructure

• Less PC use at home/only device

If you couple these things together, if you're doing 100% of your browsing/email/internet/gaming on a mobile device, wouldn't you want a larger device?
Rating: 14 Votes
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Bobby Corwen
68 months ago
Lol Australians and Canadians think everything is BS and were the least likely to fall for the hype of the 6 Plus.
Rating: 11 Votes
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macduke
68 months ago

Some people accepted a 6 because the 6+ wasn't available. I want to see what the numbers are in Jan-Mar quarter.


Most reasonable people who aren't obsessed with technology (95%+ of the population) aren't going to buy the iPhone 6 just because the Plus wasn't available. They're going to buy the device that they want and wait for it. Most people aren't that impatient when it comes to technology. Heck, I'm pretty obsessed with technology and even I waited until my local store had the iPad Air 2 128GB in Space Gray. On retail launch day they only had silver and gold, so I just waited, even though it was just about a bezel color. I bet the difference in the next quarter will be within a few percent.
Rating: 9 Votes
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APlotdevice
68 months ago

Any sociologists out there who want to explain why the Asian demographic prefers the larger device?


I'm no sociologist, but I know that in Japan at least a large portion of the population commutes long distances through public transportation. Larger devices would certainly be helpful for passing the time in this situation.
Rating: 8 Votes
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Fzang
68 months ago

or simply due to customer preference for other reasons.


Some quality market analysis right there.
Rating: 6 Votes
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ArtOfWarfare
68 months ago

The ratio also varies significantly by data source, with a recent survey (https://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/14/iphone-6-ratios/) putting the U.S. ratio at 3:1 in favor of the iPhone 6 over the first four weeks of availability while AppLovin's data points to a 5:1 split.


Please go back and learn 5th grade math. Having an 80:20 split simplifies down to 4:1, not 5:1.

Also - I ordered both a 6 and 6+ for my household on September 28th via AT&T. Both arrived on November 12th. So supply constraints may not be tipping the scale one way or the other - my anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that both phones facing equally tight supply constraints.
Rating: 6 Votes
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sviato
68 months ago
Not really a surprise, phablets are more of a niche market. I wouldn't expect the numbers to change drastically with more availability.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Dater
68 months ago
that fits!

I am German and i have the iPhone 6. My wife is from Taiwan and she has the iPhone 6 Plus ;)
Rating: 4 Votes
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MacSince1990
68 months ago

They are more in tune with their ocular receptors and derive more serene pleasure from the eye candy due to a higher level of mental patience on average due to the lower test levels in the ethnic group on average.

its kind of like how eastern philosophy is based around meditation and focus while other cultures have more "aggression" in their culture.

Well focus is the opposite of aggression. Its why there aren't many Asians in the NBA but also most NBA players can barely put sentences together or care to sculpt Banzai trees as a form of relaxation.

There have been new studies that show Europeans and Asians have 2-5% elements of Neanderthal DNA which points to differences in how human brains work and the amount of lipids in various ethnic groups.

Pretty much, they are more likely to focus on, and enjoy the screen because of the way the brains and eyes work. They are almost having sex with it while other people don't really have patience for that and focus on other more physical based perceptions of reality. Smart people see their body as a vessel that carries their brain. Athletic people are more in a mind-body connection and see the body as themselves and it happens to carry their brain.

I know its not scientific but sometimes science doesn't have a way to test these things. I just have been friends with a lot of people on a lot of continents from early ages and I have notice patterns. I moved around a lot as a child and met many people in a way most people never had a chance to experience which is way more than any sociological tests can claim because there are no methods to test such elusive concepts.

In my whole life, my theories have never been met with examples that don't fit into my exploration of the influence of testosterone and the patterns in culture that originate from the dictation of the machinations of testosterone.

All machinations have to come from a simple place because evolution is relatively simple logistical mechanism that dictates patterns in our cultures.


.....This post was all over the place, yikes. Talk about meandering. Some of the basic claims here are true (Neandertal DNA, etc., although this has been known for at least 7 years now), but the conclusions you draw from them are a bit nutty. And you occasionally throw in things at random ("brain lipids") without really tying it in at all. This reads like a stream of consciousness rather than an actual cogent thought process. The odds that you will find any support from any scientific sources of any of your basic claims (especially the first paragraph) are about zero.

You also make sweeping generalizations that fail to take into account any number of equally important factors like socioeconomic status, culture, environment, nutrition, and more.

As someone who is both plenty smart (IQ > 140) and has, yes, natural testosterone levels that exceed 1500ng/dL, I can tell you I neither see my body as a vessel for my brain, nor my brain as a mere part of my body. It's a hell of a lot more complicated than that. The idea that aggression and intelligence are mutually exclusive is a bit laughable.

Your gross oversimplification of this entire subject is slightly offensive-- in addition to being asinine.

And for the record, there's no evidence that Neanderthals were any more violent than humans. If anything, the opposite is true. And they were in no way stupid. Actually, their larger brains helped with things like spatial ability and direction.

Oh, and guess who had very large visual cortices? You guessed it: Neanderthals.
Rating: 3 Votes

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