It is clear that Apple dominates in both the US and the UK, but they are lagging behind Samsung in the rest of Europe. With the new iPhone XR, the company has expanded their share of the market in the UK and hope to do the same across the rest of the continent, but now they only make up 20 percent of its biggest economies.
Success of the iPhone XR
The iPhone XR is the best-selling mobile device in the UK, and it accounts for one in ten phone sales in the US. It even made the list of top-ten best-selling devices in China. This is because not only is the phone affordable, it has many of the modern specs of their more expensive phones including a 6.1 liquid retina display screen, an A12 Bionic chipset that has 3GB of RAM, and the modern camera system their premium phones have. In addition to the hardware, it has the longest battery life of any iPhone and is dust resistant and waterproof.
The Market in the UK
The new affordable phone has increased the market share of mobile devices in the UK, which has never been higher. This is in part because many people have upgraded to the XR. Only one percent of people who bought it upgraded from the iPhone X. Everyone else either upgraded from an older model of an iPhone or switched over from another company. For the more expensive phones, the iPhone XS and XS Max, 16 percent of buyers had the iPhone X and upgraded to these models.
Though Apple products make up half of the phones sold in the UK market, the iOS has gone down in recent years according to the specialists at the site MoneyPug, a platform commonly used to find cheap mobile phone deals. Despite the decrease, the operating system still accounts for 49.2 percent of the devices sold in the country but only 20.1 percent in Europe.
Sales outside the UK
While the phone has done very well in the UK and the US, it is behind in Europe. Samsung takes up nearly 80 percent of the market. The five biggest markets held firm with Samsung in the latest quarter of business, especially in Spain and Italy where their models have increased in sales.
With the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S10 helped solidify place at the top of the European market. It accounts for 49.4 percent of Samsung sales while the S10+ takes up 42.8 percent, and 8 percent comes from the S10e. For Samsung, the more expensive models are selling better, which are expected to increase as they move towards average consumers. This is the opposite for Apple, which has moved towards producing cheaper models in an attempt to expand its share of the market with more price points.
The Future of Apple in Europe & Beyond
By expanding price points and moving towards cheaper models, Apple is trying to get deeper into the markets of Europe and China. While we can’t know what will happen in the future, the affordability of the iPhone XR will make Apple products more enticing for people who haven’t been able to afford them before this. Since it has worked in the US and the UK, it may have the same effect in the rest of Europe. But with so much competition from Samsung and Chinese companies like Huawei, there is no way to know for sure.
China’s domestic companies compete with the iPhone, but as more people transition to Apple products, few people go back. This is probably because they offer great upgrade deals to keep customers who have older models. As for the United States, Apple’s share of the mobile phone market has increased by 6.5 percent to a total of 45.5 percent.
Though no one can know what will happen in the future, Apple’s move towards cheaper models has been successful, despite their initial expectations. But since their inexpensive model has proved successful, it is possible that this may lead to the company producing lower quality phones. Since people who buy Samsung go for the premium models, these shifts will affect sales but it is unclear how.
