In urban China, demand for the iPhone X has exceeded all expectations, according to the latest smartphone OS data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech in the three months ending November 2017.

    Tamsin Timpson, ComTech Asia Strategic Insight Director explains: “Apple was riding on the back of some momentum before the iPhone X release, but demand the iPhone X has been staggering given its price point.

    “The iPhone X was the top selling model in Urban China in November, with 6.0% share, but what’s particularly encouraging for Apple is that iPhone models also occupied the next three top selling models in November (iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8),” she added. “Unlike in Europe and the US where the vast majority of new early iPhone sales came from existing iPhone owners, in Urban China there are significant numbers of Huawei, Xiaomi & Samsung customers switching to the new iPhone models.”

    Kantar Worldpanel ComTech carries out monthly panel surveys among Chinese urban mobile phone users to monitor the market share changes of various brands. In China, the panel size is 22,000. Panellists were recruited from tier-1 to 5 cities and each year more than 260,000 surveys were conducted. The nature of the research methodology means it can cover the influence of smartphones sold in other countries ended up in China and avoid the confusion caused by unsold phones stocked at warehouses of distributors.

    In other parts of the world, in the three months ending November 2017, iOS share fell -0.6 percentage point across the big five European markets to 23.9% share and lost 3.8 percentage points in the United States to 39.8%.  

    Dominic Sunnebo, Global Director for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech comments: “On the surface the Apple share numbers in the 3 months to November 2017 struggle to impress, but once you look deeper and take into account the staged releases of the new iPhone 8 and iPhone X, you can start to see some strong numbers.

    “In Great Britain, Apple achieved its highest share in more than three years in the month of November, taking it to 49.4% and easily regaining the #1 sales position from Samsung. The iPhone X was the top selling model in Great Britain in November, taking 14.4% share.”

    In the US, the iPhone X was outsold by the iPhone 8 & iPhone 8 Plus in November, but held on the #3 best-selling model position in the month, easily beating out the top Samsung model, the Galaxy S8 down in #6 spot.

From: Kantar