Android Takes Over Europe

When Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed his company’s third quarter earnings in late July, he highlighted one market in which his company had seriously underperformed: “The geography that did not perform well was Europe. Europe was essentially flat, slightly positive year-on-year and that really hampered our total results.”

Earlier this week, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, WPP’s market analytics service, released numbers that confirm Apple’s lackluster performance in Europe’s key markets. The numbers show that Android has significantly increased its market share in the European smartphone market. In the 12 weeks ending July 8, Android smartphones accounted for 87% of total smartphone sales in Spain, 72% of smartphone sales in Germany and 62% of French smartphone sales.

The reasons for this jump in market share are probably two-fold: most importantly, Europe is in the middle of a severe economic crisis and consumers no longer seem to be willing to pay the premium that Apple charges for the iPhone. Secondly, Samsung released its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy SIII, in the survey period, while Apple’s new iPhone is expected to hit the shelves in late September. It will be interesting to see, if Android can keep the momentum going or if Apple comes back strong with the iPhone 5.