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eMarketer: Apple’s share of the U.S. smartphone market is creeping back up

eMarketer, a research firm, has released a report on U.S. and UK market share for the iPhone and iPad. It shows that the iPhone’s market share is creeping back up (at least globally), while the iPad’s market share continues to decline.

According to eMarketer, Apple’s share of smartphone users in the US is expected to remain static in 2016, accounting for a 43.5% share, from 43.3% in 2015.  Android, by comparison, will see its share of US smartphone users rise slightly to 52.0%, up from 51.7% the previous year. 

Although the number of overall iPad users continues to increase, Apple has been losing share in the US tablet market. After falling below 50% for the first time in 2015, Apple’s share of the tablet market is expected to drop to 47.8% in 2016.  By 2020, eMarketer estimates that 44.0% of tablet users in the US will be using an iPad.

In 2015, 49.5% of the U.S. population or 159.2 million people, used tablets at least monthly according to eMarketer. This year, eMarketer estimates that 51.4% of Americans will use a tablet once a month, totaling 166.7 million. 

In the UK, Apple is expected to account for a 31.8% share of smartphone users this year, a slight increase from 31.6% last year.  eMarketer estimates Android will account for 55.7% of UK smartphone users this year, compared to 55.3% last year.

eMarketer expects there to be 16.9 million iPad users in the UK in 2016, representing 25.7% of the population. That figure also represents 48.0% of UK tablet users, which eMarketer estimates will be down from 49.5% share of all tablet users last year.

This year, eMarketer estimates, 35.2 million people in the UK will use a tablet at least once per month, up from 32.8 million users last year. By 2020 this figure is forecasted to rise to 41.5 million. 

Apple TV trails the U.S. connected TV market, behind Google Chromecast and Roku, with its share shrinking, according to eMarketer. This year, 12.5% of connected TV users will subscribe to Apple TV, compared with 18.4% for Chromecast and 15.2% for Roku, according to the research group.

U.S. mobile proximity payments — which include payments made with a smartphone at the point of sale in place of a credit card or cash — are expected to reach $27.05 billion in 2016, according to eMarketer. That figure will increase significantly to $210.45 billion by 2019.

There will be 37.5 million U.S. mobile proximity payments users in the US in 2016, according to eMarketer. By 2019, that figure will rise to 69.8 billion. The research group adds that there will be 195.3 million proximity payment users in China this year, rising to 323.3 million by 2020. 

Apple continues to move the ball forward when it comes to enabling more seamless payment experiences for users of its products,” says Bryan Yeager, senior analyst, eMarketer. “At the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June, it unveiled Apple Pay for the web, with support for the Safari browser on Macs and iPhones, as well as new Apple Pay capabilities for its iMessage mobile messaging app in its upcoming iOS 10 release this fall. Both capabilities provide more opportunities for people to use Apple Pay, and eMarketer will be closely watching whether or not more payment touchpoints on the web and in messaging will translate to increased Apple Pay usage at the physical point of sale. Also important to note is that the global rollout of Apple Pay continues at a steady pace, with plans to launch the service in France, Hong Kong and Switzerland by the end of the summer.”


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Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.