Samsung holds off Apple to claim #1 Australian smartphone brand
Australians love the Galaxy S7 particularly, but Samsung's recent Note 7 woes could see those gains reversed.
The latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel for global operating system shares for the period ending August 2016 suggest that Android continues its surge against Apple’s iOS. In Australia, Android had a market share of 62.5% for the quarter ending August 2016. That’s a jump of 10% from the same time a year ago.
Conversely, Apple’s iOS enjoys a 32.6% market share, a slump of 5% from the same time a year previous. That shouldn’t account for all of the Android growth were it not for the collapse of Windows 10 phones, which now account for only 2.4% locally. To put that in perspective, the "other" category, lumping all other smartphone operating systems together, had 2.5% market share in the same period.
Samsung’s Galaxy S7 held the top spot during this period, with the iPhone 6s taking second, the much older iPhone 5 in third and the smaller iPhone SE managing a fifth place finish.
Kantar’s figures suggest that while Samsung maintained a lead in this period with the Galaxy S7 outpacing the iPhone 6s, the majority of growth in the Android space came from other OEMs selling low to mid-range phones, with brands such as Alcatel, Oppo, Huawei and ZTE noted for selling large volumes of low-cost phones.
It seems likely that low-end phones will continue to push Android forward, especially in developing markets, although Kantar suggests that Apple may offset those figures with an increased presence in the Chinese market. With those figures ending in August 2016, prior to the launch of the iPhone 7 and the launch, release and burnout of the Galaxy Note7, as well as Google’s impending Pixel launch, it will be interesting to see where consumers flocked over the following three months.
Latest mobile phones headlines
Image: Shutterstock