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Too slow with that iPhone refresh, Apple: Android is GOBBLING up US mobile market

... And everywhere else too

Android made further inroads into the US market at the expense of Apple, according to latest market share snapshot from tech analyst Kantar. Meanwhile, Windows Phone has stalled in 2014.

Neither finding is at all surprising. Android devices are available at prices Apple won’t compete with, and months of pre-publicity for the all-new iPhone 6 mean that any rational prospective buyer will wait for the launch, expected in a week or two.

For Windows Phone, the explanation is even simpler: there has barely been any new product launched this year, as ODMs waited, and waited, and waited for Microsoft to finish Windows Phone 8.1. Volume shipments of the Lumia 630 only really started in June, so don’t reflect three months’ data.

(Kantar takes a snapshot over a rolling three-month period.)

Android’s share of the US market rose 11.4 percentage points year-on-year to 62.9 per cent, while iOS fell by almost exactly the same amount, 11.8 percentage points. Windows Phone collapsed in China from 2.3 per cent to 0.8 per cent.

Do any other markets matter? Ah yes, India, which Kantar doesn’t report, and the EU, which sees little change except a 4 percentage point rise for Android to 75.1 per cent, largely at the expense of "other", aka BlackBerry.

Still, Windows Phone is popular in Italy, doubling its share year-on-year to 13 per cent, overtaking Apple in the process. Microsoft’s mobile OS powers 9.9 per cent of phones in the UK, down from a high point of 12 per cent a year ago.

You can play with Kantar's interactive slidey gizmo here. ®

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