The latest smartphone sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, for the three months ending November 2014, shows that the impact of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch continued in the run up to Christmas with iOS growing its market share in all surveyed countries.

Apple's market share gain, triggered by the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch, continued into November when it reached 42.5% of British sales for a growth of 12.2 percentage points year-on-year mainly at the expense of Android.

Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Europe added that "The longer the new iPhone models are on the market the more their appeal will extend beyond Apple's loyal customers. For now customer switching from Android to iOS remains stable at 18%."

In the US, Kantar's report noted that Apple reached 47.4% of sales, 4.3 percentage points higher than the same period in 2013. It was further noted that AT&T made up 57% of iOS sales.

And lastly, it was surprising to learn that Apple's iPhone sales only saw a small increase of 1.1% gain in China. According to Kantar, Apple's share of the smartphone market in urban China is only at 18.1%. China Mobile remained Apple's main channel with sales through the largest Chinese carrier accounting for 63% of Apple's overall sales.

Xiaomi is putting a lot of pressure on both Samsung and Apple sales. Xiaomi sales grew 227% percent in 2014 with a 135% surge in revenue. While Apple is still the leader in high end smartphones, they may have to rethink their mid-range offering in order to boost sales further in China.

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 7pm PST and sporadically over the weekend.

Also see our other report today titled "Q4 iPhone Sales Estimates Point to between 67-71 Million Units."