US iPhone market share increased in the first quarter of the year, despite the fact that the smartphone market as a whole suffered a major decline, according to new market intelligence data.
It indicates that US smartphone shipments fell sharply in the first quarter of the year, with two main factors cited …
Background
The smartphone market as a whole continues to be a tough business to be in. After a pandemic-induced boost, the long-term trend is back to a declining market, especially in mature countries like the US.
That long-term trend reflects the fact that smartphones themselves are a mature technology, with more incremental changes than must-have ones. Where people once upgraded every 1-2 years, the average upgrade cycle now is in the 3-4 year range.
Even Apple hasn’t been immune to this, though it has generally managed to maintain iPhone revenue growth thanks to more expensive models boosting the average selling price.
Declining US smartphone market
Counterpoint’s latest market estimates indicate that US smartphone shipments fell 17% year-on-year, in Q1, with two reasons cited.
Smartphone shipments in the US declined 17% YoY in Q1 2023 as OEMs corrected high channel inventory and as consumer demand declined due to macroeconomic pressures. The market witnessed a dip in shipments across all major OEMs after registering a strong first quarter last year.
It could be argued that’s really one factor, as the reason inventories were high is that sellers over-estimated demand in the holiday quarter.
While US iPhone shipments also fell, they did so more slowly than the smartphone market as a whole – enabling Apple to boost its market share from 49% in Q1 2022, to 53% in the same quarter this year.
Counterpoint says that US smartphone users continue to switch from Android to iPhone.
Apple managed to increase its market share despite a YoY drop in its shipments […]
Android-to-iOS migration […] continues to remain a key pain point among Android OEMs.
Similar story to iPad
We learned yesterday that global tablet shipments fell by almost the same amount – 18% rather than 17% year-on-year – and that Apple fared better than average. The report states that the iPad remains unchallenged in both the short and long term.
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