Cheaper Handsets – The Main Reason Behind Consumers Who Choose Android
There were a lot of rumors hinting at Apple considering production of a low cost smart phone and current statistics support these rumors. A research that was done in February this year, indicates that Android’s market share dominance over iOS has grown from last year. While last year Android had a lead of 2 points domestically, the research concluded at the beginning of this year shows that Android’s market share dominance is now bigger, with 8 points domestically.
In terms of sales in the United States, Android has 51.2 percent according to a survey made by Kantar Worldpanel (a market research company) – this represents just a little over half the total smart phone sales in the US. Considering that in the same period of last year Android had a percentage of 47, the growth is quite remarkable. Apple’s iOS occupies the second place with a total sales percentage of 43.5 in the US market. This marks a loss of 3.5 percent of smart phone sales from the same period last year, according to the same market research company.
Even though Apple supporters claim that the iPhone maker is still the most profitable among smart phones makers, there are also people that doubt its ability to continue without offering a low priced smart phone. Android’s increasing lead over iOS in the smart phone market is a very good reason for why Apple needs to offer a low budget smart phone on the market.
The same Kantar Worldpanel company attributes most of the credits for Android’s increasing market share to Samsung and its line of smartphones and stable Android 4.2 Jellybean updates. Mary-Ann Parlato, an analyst for Kantar Worldpanel, states that “Android’s increases were thanks to a large increase in Samsung sales within Sprint [...]”. At the beginning of 2013, there was a discount by Sprint on Samsung’s line of smart phones; this increased demand for smart phones and the carrier alike. There are also people that give credit to Samsung for Apple’s decreasing smart phone market share in the United States, as more people are interested in a lower priced smart phone and as more and more people are moving to Samsung’s Galaxy line of smart phones.
Kantar Worldpanel concludes that the price of smart phones is a decisive factor and also one of the main reasons why people choose Android smart phones over iOS smart phones and why not more customizable firmwares such as the Android 4.x Jelly Bean line. Another very important question is what is more important to Apple: profit margins or a higher number of smart phone sales? There are emerging markets (one of them being India) for smart phones and if Apple decides to compete in these markets (and focus on them) by offering a lower priced alternative to its current line of iPhone smart phones, then Apple’s profits will decrease due to a combination of many factors among which the first will be the (hypothetical) less expensive smart phone. However, such a decision from Apple would also mean more smart phones sold in these emergent markets and this increase in units sold will mean a less chance of being overtaken by Android smart phones.
