Kantar: iPhone market share drops 2.3 points in the US to 30.5% but climbs in Europe and China
Context & Ripple Effects
This reading breaks an eight-month run: in January, Kantar had Apple's smartphone share rising in nearly every market, riding the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch cycle. By mid-2015 the US number has given back ground — down 2.3 points to 30.5% — while Europe and China keep climbing, suggesting the upgrade wave is maturing unevenly by region.
The China gain is worth flagging because it does not last in this dataset: within months Kantar records iOS falling for the first time in urban China since August 2014. And the US dip proves cyclical too, with Apple later hitting 40.5% US share after Samsung's Galaxy Note7 recall.
First-order effects
- Apple loses 2.3 points of US share in a single reading, while its Europe and China numbers rise — the first regional split since the iPhone 6 launch lifted it almost everywhere.
Second-order effects
- Samsung and Android vendors regain pricing pressure at home in the US just as Apple leans on Europe and China growth, shifting where each side's carrier subsidies and marketing budgets compete hardest.
Third-order effects
- Share swings this size tracking product cycles rather than structural loss point to a mature duopoly market where quarterly leadership alternates on refresh timing — a pattern the Note7-era reversal later confirms.
The trend: Smartphone share between Apple and Samsung is becoming a product-cycle pendulum, with regional gains and losses rotating quarter to quarter instead of moving in one direction.