iPhone Sales Down Pending Release of iPhone 5
As a blogger I rely heavily on numbers and solid facts to be able to form the opinions, viewpoints, and commentary that I share with readers like yourself. Even though my job as a blogger doesn’t typically ask me to prepare numbers and statistics on my own, the fact of the matter is that without the flow of information that is readily available from the Internet I wouldn’t have anything to base my writings on, as the changes in statistics, information, and developments each and every day are what make the news that I report. No better example of this concept is the constantly changing market-share in the dog-eat-dog mobile industry where competitors are constantly one-upping each other and releasing better and more powerful products.
This week a new statistical figure from Nielsen has concluded that in the last three months sales of Android handsets have been double that of Apple’s iPhone. But while this number makes it sound as if Apple has really fallen behind in the mobile market, really following the ups and downs of the mobile industry really does prove that while Android-based handsets are definitely gaining in popularity, Apple is still an incredibly strong player in the industry. And even though Apple’s sales of iPhone handsets are indeed down right now the numbers aren’t as bad as some people may make them out to be.
First and foremost, we have to clarify an important (yet often misunderstood) concept in the world of mobile handsets. While Apple’s iPhone is one line of devices, Android is simply a mobile operating system developed by Google and used on countless handsets from different manufacturers and of different price levels. Much like you can buy a Windows PC from a number of manufacturers Android is the operating system used by a great many manufactures on a countless number of handsets.
So when we look at the sales numbers from the last couple of months, the truth is that the sales of several different handsets combined are two-folding the sales figures of the Apple iPhone. And when I say “several different handsets” I’m not exaggerating. Recently my workplace renewed our mobile phone contracts, and when it came time for me to choose the handset that I wanted I was handed a huge catalog of different devices; several pages of which were powered by the Android operating system.
Even if the entire Android catalog consisted solely of two or three phones, a single phone (on average) wouldn’t be more popular than the iPhone. Do you know of a single phone – any handset, produced by any manufacturer, running any operating system – that is more popular than the iPhone right now? Can you even name a single mobile phone in history that has been more popular than the iPhone? I sure can’t.
On top of this we need to consider that even though the last few months have shown lower iPhone sales there is a logical reason for the decline. As I’m sure you’ve read (several times) by now, Apple is rumored to be on the verge of releasing the next generation iPhone. And with this impending update to the iPhone line in mind, many users who would be buying iPhones are likely holding off on their purchases because they know Apple is likely only a matter of weeks away from announcing the iPhone 5. And really, who would buy a device knowing that it was going to be outdated within a couple of months? I wouldn’t; that’s for sure.
It’s not like this is a new concept either. I made the same point in December of last year when the iPhone’s sales were beginning to slump. The reality is that the iPhone has it’s peak points during the year, and like any other products has points where it’s not so popular. But this isn’t a reason to challenge the iPhone’s influence in the mobile industry. After all, it’s only a matter of time until we start writing about the insane eager customers who camp out in front of Apple stores and malls around the country to get their hands on Apple’s latest and greatest consumer handset.