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  • Examining iPhone pricing and US market share

    by 
    Kelly Hodgkins
    Kelly Hodgkins
    07.20.2012

    Analyst Benedict Evans tries to explain why the iPhone accounts for about half of US smartphone sales, but is outold 2:1 by Android globally. He argues that it all comes down to plan pricing and phone subsidy. In the US, consumers save US$100-$200 on the cost of the phone, but the plan pricing is the same. As a result, US consumers only save 10 percent by going with a less expensive Android device. Overseas, however, plan pricing is much more flexible. Customers can buy a cheap phone and a less expensive plan to match. As a result, the iPhone can be as much as 160 percent more expensive than its cheaper Android counterpart. You can read his full analysis in this article on ben-evans.com.