Apple retains smartphone sales lead ahead of iPhone 6 launch
APPLE’S UK smartphone sales remained steady up to the launch of its new iPhone 6 last month, defying the historical trend of a sales slump ahead of the new devices release, according to data from Kantar Worldpanel.
The iPhone 5C was the best selling smartphone in the UK during August, with 8.9 per cent share of sales.
It outsold the flagship iPhone 5s with 7.6 per cent and the Samsung Galaxy S5 with six per cent, all despite the imminent arrival of the iPhone 6.
“Historically in the month before a new iPhone is released, we see a drop in sales share for Apple as users hold out for the new model,” said Kantar Worldpanel ComTech strategic insight director Dominic Sunnebo. “However, Apple has managed to limit the drop this year with its share of sales dipping just 1.6 percentage points versus July this year – almost half the equivalent drop seen in 2013 ahead of the iPhone 5 launch.”
Kantar said that of the 13.3m iPhone users in the UK around 4m were due for an upgrade and 85 per cent planned to buy another iPhone.