Apple's Smartphone Market Share Rises Sharply in Asia After iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Launch

Apple's share of the smartphone market in Asia has risen significantly since the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in September, according to market research firm Counterpoint (via The Wall Street Journal). The biggest market share gains for the iPhone came in Japan, China, and South Korea, with the iPhone seeing a 33% market share during November in the latter country. This only trailed rival and South Korean company Samsung, which had a 46% market share after holding a 60% market share.

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“No foreign brand has gone beyond the 20% market share mark in the history of Korea’s smartphone industry,” said Tom Kang, research director for mobile devices at Counterpoint. “It has always been dominated by the global smartphone leader, Samsung. But iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have made a difference here, denting the competition’s phablet sales.”

Apple's market share in Japan grew to 51% in November, holding a commanding lead over second place Sony which holds 17% market share. In China, Apple held a 12% market share in the smartphone market, which is third place behind Lenovo's 13% market share and upstart manufacturer Xiaomi, which commanded a 18% market share.

In November, data from AppLovin showed that the iPhone 6 Plus was popular with Asian customers, as Japan, Vietnam, China, and the Philippines showed an adoption rate of over 35% for the larger device. Overall, strong sales for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus led to smartphone market share growth for Apple across the world, with analysts attributing the growth to the redesigned bodies and larger screens of both devices.

Tag: wsj.com

Top Rated Comments

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thekeyring

51 months ago

Better marketing often beats a better product.

Luckily Apple has both.

Rating: 8 Votes

MattJessop

51 months ago

Anecdotal, but being in Shanghai recently, at least 1 third of the people I saw all had 6 pluses. Worth noting that the smallest phone size I saw was still around 5 inches, even with the older generations. Crazy.

Rating: 3 Votes

taptic

51 months ago

I'm not in Asia, but I have never seen such a sharp rise in the next generation iPhone as I have with the 6. Usually it seems to take longer before I see so many of the latest in the wild.

Rating: 3 Votes

wesley96

51 months ago

I was unaware that people purchased phones based on some sort of nationalism.:rolleyes: But if what you say is true, what does that say about us Americans? I mean, it's not like we buy Apple exclusively because they're the "home company". Samsung's marketing definitely worked here, and according to this forum, Apple's product was better.

It could be as simple as more Korean people like iPhones now that they have sizes that are more attractive to the market.

Speaking as a Korean here, nationalism has driven sales of local brands in the past and is still valid to certain extent even now. But it's also the case of brand familiarity, especially for the older generations. They're familiar with Samsung and LG, and have the perception that they make good products. So even me being a stalwart Apple fan, I just recommend Samsung to relatives who are not familiar with Apple.

Meanwhile, the younger generations are familiar with Apple and the so-called iPhone Shock that happened back in 2009 when iPhone officially launched here. This demographic had embraced it quite well. But since then, the screen being more or less the same size had an effect of eroding the market share, moving away to large screen size offerings from the local brands. What we've seen back last November would be more or less those people returning.

Rating: 3 Votes

fallenjt

51 months ago

Better marketing often beats a better product.

Tell that to the Korean. They turned away from their home company's products.

Rating: 1 Votes

ryuok

51 months ago

We have small eyes, so the bigger screens definitely help. ;)

Rating: 1 Votes

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