As of July 2014, Apple was the top smartphone original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, with a 41.9 percent share of the market, up from 41.3 percent in the preceding three months. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. ranked second with a 27.8 percent market share, while LG Electronics Inc., Motorola and HTC Corp rounded off the top five.
We see the iPhone leading in the Smartphone industry but often forget just how significant the model was to the industry as a whole. Five years ago today, Apple’s first iPhone hit stores while many in the tech world thought that it would be a flop because it was ridiculously expensive and it was something no one had ever really heard of before: a smartphone targeted primarily at consumers, rather than business people. Five years later and Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone, the iPhone 4S, is the most popular single gadget on the planet. In fact, in five years the iPhone has sold 250 million total iPhones and raked in $150 billion in revenues. While Google’s Android platform has emerged as a strong competitor, the iPhone remains the single most popular smartphone in the world. As we know, in the U.S., the iPhone has been the first or second most popular single handset since the second quarter of 2008. With the introduction of the iPhone 4s in October 2011 and then the iPhone 5 in September of 2012, the company continues to grow and post record profits.
This infographic displays the considerable amount of consumer growth of the iPhone, which gives us insight into why the iPhone is important to mobile marketing as a whole:
I have an iPhone 5s and previously had the iPhone 4s so I am personally familiar with the products and I enjoy their functionality and accessibility.
The most important effect the iPhone has had on the Smartphone industry is the powerful research that shows iPhone users being much more willing to engage with mobile media than users of any other handset out there, which makes them a perfect target market for mobile marketing. The most important thing that makes iPhones different for mobile marketers is HOW they’re used. Hunch, a personal recommendation service, has surveyed 15,818 of its users to determine the average demographic, personality, and lifestyle of iPhone and Android consumers in order to see if stereotypes hold true. In the image below we can see the interesting findings:
In your comments, let me know:
- Do you have an iPhone? If not, what do you have?
- Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
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