Verizon iPhone Accounts For Almost One Third Of U.S. iPhone 4 Carrier Share
by Joe White
July 8, 2011
The Verizon iPhone now accounts for 32 percent of U.S. iPhone 4 traffic, Localytics reports.
According to the analytics firm, while the GSM AT&T iPhone 4 is still by far the most popular iPhone 4 in the U.S.A., Verizon's CDMA handset isn't too far behind. After just four months of availability, the handset - which is still stuck running iOS 4.2.8, we might add - has managed to capture almost one third of the U.S. iPhone 4 carrier share.
The important thing to note, however, is that Verizon's share of iPhone handsets has been gradually growing since the CDMA iPhone 4 launched, back in February. Initially, Verizon scooped a 20 percent carrier share. Now, this figure has increased by over 10 percent.
Importantly, the Verizon iPhone is helping Apple gain a bigger cut of the U.S. smart phone market. Currently, this market is dominated by Android smart phones: Google's mobile operating system holds a 50 percent cut (though this figure recently decreased), and Apple has just under 30 percent (source: Business Insider). At the risk of stating the obvious, I would say that the key reason Android is so successful in the U.S.A. is less to do with quality and more to do with availability.
Just think: Apple's share of the smart phone market has increased due to the launch of the Verizon iPhone. Now, this is just one other network, carrying the same handset. Instead, Android is present on a wide variety of different handsets (manufactured by different companies), and carried by different networks. Is it any surprise Android is ahead of the iPhone in terms of smart phone market share?
However, another thing we should remember (something we discussed in depth recently), is that a great many potential CDMA iPhone customers have probably held off on purchasing a handset, due to the belief that Apple religiously refreshes its iPhone hardware every June. Therefore it's not crazy to suggest that a fair amount of Verizon fans out there are ready to purchase an iPhone, but are holding out for the launch of the fifth generation handset.
When this happens, we'll not only see a boom in the iPhone's smart phone market share, but Verizon's carrier share will obviously increase. It's impressive Verizon has managed to gain a 32 percent share in such a short time, however this share is going to really increase once the iPhone 5 hits stores.
Thoughts? Feel free to share them in the comments.
[via Apple Insider]