iPhone SE turns around market share losses for Apple

Apple has reversed recent declines in market share in the UK and worldwide following the release of the lower-cost iPhone SE, according to box-counters Kantar WorldPanel ComTech.

Kantar's numbers indicate that Apple's four-inch iPhone has become the best selling smartphone in the UK, outselling the Samsung Galaxy S7, as well as Apple's own, more expensive iPhone 6S.

The iPhone SE accounted for 9.2 per cent of UK smartphone sales in the second quarter, according to Kantar, followed by the iPhone 6S on 9.1 per cent.

In total, devices running iOS accounted for 37.2 per cent of smartphone sales in the UK, up from 34.1 per cent this time last year. It is also higher than the 31.8 per cent market share in the US, and the 18.2 per cent in the five largest European markets.

Kantar expects Apple's growth to continue following the release of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Among Apple users, the analyst's data suggested that 49 per cent of American and 51 per cent of Chinese iPhone users have an iPhone 5S or older, making them ripe for an upgrade in September.

Google Android devices also continue to dominate the market, with Android enjoying growth of 4.1 percentage points, year on year, to 57.3 per cent in the second quarter.

Kantar hasn't revealed exact figures, but this growth has no doubt been fuelled by the success of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, which recently pushed Samsung to its highest profit in two years, as well as the ever-increasing availability of decent low-cost devices.

The increasing market shares of iOS and Android has to hit somewhere, and it's perhaps no surprise that Microsoft took the hit.

Windows Phone accounted for just 4.9 per cent of smartphone sales in the UK during the second quarter, according to Kantar's numbers, down from 11.3 per cent this time last year.

BlackBerry also took a hit, but this doesn't come as a huge surprise given that the company now focuses on Android. BlackBerry OS market share halved year on year from 1.2 per cent to just 0.6 per cent.