iPhone sales in pain as rivals gain

WASHINGTON, USA: Apple's iPhone sales are sputtering as rival smartphone manufacturers improve their offerings, a market research firm said Wednesday, 17 July.

The survey by IHS iSuppli said smartphones sales are still strong around the world, but that Apple's sales are lagging.

"Apple's iPhone franchise appears to be stalling as first-quarter shipments of 37.4m units fell below expectations," the report said.

"With the next iPhone model not expected until the second half of the year, there is a real possibility that the full-year sales volume of the iPhone may show a marginal rise to 150m units, from 134m units last year," it said.

IHS analyst Wayne Lam said the volume of new flagship smartphones from top manufacturers this year "has been astounding," citing the new BlackBerry Z10, HTC One, and updated Samsung Galaxy S4.

"The possible slowing growth of the iPhone and the rapid pace of competitive smartphone releases show the ferocious nature of the handset business, especially now that the market pivots away from lower-end handsets or feature phones to one that is focussed on smartphones," Lam said.

IHS said smartphones are likely to make up more than half of the 1.5bn handsets likely to be sold this year as mobile subscribers worldwide increase to about seven billion.

Recent surveys have shown Google's Android operating system is used on about 75% of new smartphones. Apple's iOS accounts for around about 20% of the world market.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge