Apple's iOS Gains on Android in the US While Apple Considers a an iPad mini Design Tweak
According to a new study published late yesterday, the three month period ending May 2013 had Android continuing its lead in smartphone sales at 52%. Apple's iOS was close behind with 41.9% of sales. While Android statistics remained relatively flat, Apple's iOS gained 3.5% during the same time frame. The increase appears to have come via new distribution from T-Mobile. In other Apple news, rumor has it that a new minor tweak may be coming to the iPad mini this fall.
New carrier statistics for the iPhone that were also presented in Kantar Worldpanel's report state that for the three months ending May 2013, the iPhone 5 was the best-selling smartphone at T-Mobile, despite the fact that it came out in the middle of the sales period in April. And iPhone sales accounted for 31% of T-Mobile's smartphone sales over this period. While this is comparatively lower than AT&T (iOS accounting for 60.5% of AT&T sales) and Verizon (43.8%), a full quarter's worth of purchasing next month may impact T-Mobile's overall sales share and boost iOS market share even further.
Kantar Worldpanel's European report showed that Apple isn't faring as well in Europe, with only 17.8% market share compared to Android's 70.4%. Yet in terms of customer loyalty, the study found that Apple ranked number one with a 79% positive rating compared to Samsung's 59%.
On the surface, it would appear that Apple will have to open more flagship Apple Stores in Europe while beefing up their distribution overall to gain a larger footprint in Europe.
Latest iPad mini Rumors
In other news, Taiwan's supply chain manufacturers are claiming that Apple is still working out the final details for their next generation iPad mini. According to DigiTimes, the suppliers are claiming that the final decision to introduce a Retina Display is still in the wind. It appears that it all comes down to being able to secure sufficient display supply and production. If Apple thinks that they could secure enough supply, then the iPad mini with Retina may ship sometime in Q4.
The other feature that Apple is apparently still working on is refining the iPad mini design to be "bezel-less," resembling some current smartphone designs on the market today such as HTC's large sized smartphones.
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