Apple’s iPhone still dominates Britain despite Samsung’s advances
Must-know: Why customer loyalty is so important for Apple (Part 2 of 6)
The novelty factor fails to establish Samsung’s Galaxy S5 as the best-selling smartphone
According to the latest report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C continued to lead the British smartphone market in May. Yet Samsung’s (SSNLF) Galaxy S5 enticed a few buyers to switch from Apple.
Samsung released the Galaxy S5 April this year in Europe. Analysts expected the phone to beat Apple’s relatively older models, the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, in terms of sales in Britain. But the novelty factor couldn’t help the Galaxy S5. It ended up the third-highest-selling smartphone in Britain—behind the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. Let’s take a look at the important British smartphone space.
Samsung’s Galaxy S5 met with some success in Britain
According to the same report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech and as the chart above shows, only 17% of Galaxy S5 buyers across the five largest markets of Europe switched over from Apple products. These markets include the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Of Galaxy S5 buyers, 58% were existing Samsung owners. This shows you the high loyalty Europeans have for Apple products.
But, according to the same report, Google’s (GOOGL) Android remains the top smartphone operating system across the five largest markets of Europe, with a share of 73%. Apple’s iOS comes in second, at a distant 16.6%. Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone comes third, at 8.1%. Interestingly, Microsoft’s share in the worldwide smartphone OS market is only about 3%. You should note that Kantar’s report might have added Nokia’s (NOK) market share to Microsoft’s, as Microsoft acquire Nokia a few months back.
Browse this series on Market Realist: