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HMV is closing the gap with Amazon in the UK
What a difference three years makes. HMV, a company that was teetering on the edge of closure three and a half years ago, has pushed past Tesco to become the UK's second biggest entertainment retailer behind Amazon. The company recorded a 2 percent rise in sales of CDs, DVDs and video games in the three months up to April 10th, giving it a 16.9 percent share of its domestic market versus Tesco's 16.1 percent and Amazon's 22 percent -- its best showing since it re-emerged from administration in January 2013.
Giant phones are finally a big deal in the US
Extra-large phones have been hot stuff in some countries for a long while, but not so much in the US. The country must have had a change of heart in the past few months, however. Kantar Worldpanel estimates that gigantic devices jumped from 6 percent of American smartphone sales in the first quarter of last year to 21 percent in early 2015. Why? If you ask Kantar, the launch of the iPhone 6 Plus was partly responsible -- it racked up 44 percent of all supersized phone sales despite being just a few months old. The analyst group isn't saying much in public how other brands were doing, although it's safe to say that category pioneer Samsung grabbed a large slice of the pie thanks to high-powered behemoths like the Galaxy Note 4.
Windows Phone thrives in Europe, but struggles in China and the US
Microsoft's quest for smartphone market share is hitting a few roadblocks, it seems. Kantar estimates that Windows Phone is still gaining ground in Europe, where it's up year-over-year to 8.1 percent of sales in the first quarter of 2014. However, it's taking a bruising in other areas. In the US, Windows swung from increases this fall to a slight dip in the winter; while it's still doing relatively well at 5.3 percent of US share, it's not posing much of a threat to Android or iOS right now. The platform also took a drubbing in China, where its share was nearly cut in half to exactly one percent thanks to the rise of budget Android handsets.
Kantar: Samsung sales stall in China and Europe despite Android's overall growth
Thanks to its latest earnings report, we already knew that Samsung's market share dropped last quarter. But analytics outfit Kantar has now shown us mainly where: the all-important Chinese and European markets. According to its figures, the Korean giant has slipped 2.2 percent in France, the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany over last year while remaining flat in China during the same period. Since Android's overall wedge of the smartphone pie increased 5 percent in China, that means Samsung has lost ground to local companies like Xiaomi, which is now the sales leader in that nation. All that could change soon, of course, as Samsung is due to launch its Galaxy S 5 flagship in the next month or two. While Apple's iOS dropped in most markets over last year, it held strong in key markets like China and the UK, while accounting for 44 percent of holiday handset sales in the US. Cupertino is also king of Japan with 69 percent of total smartphone share, due in large part to Japan's largest operator, NTT Docomo finally carrying Apple handsets. As for the rest of the pack, Windows Phone has picked up significant market share in every region over last year and is even the number two smartphone OS in Italy. That's mostly at the expense of Blackberry, which now holds a miniscule 0.4 percent of the US market and has declined precipitously everywhere else -- to the point that its not a given that it'll appear on any charts soon.
66% of ex-NTT DoCoMo users reportedly choose iPhone
One of the rather unsung points TUAW posted after the Apple Event on Tuesday is that Apple had inked a deal for Japan's leading mobile carrier -- NTT DoCoMo -- to carry the iPhone for the first time. While that doesn't sound like a big deal, it stands to help out NTT DoCoMo a lot. The company has 61 million subscribers, but churn (subscribers leaving to go elsewhere) has been a problem. How much of a problem? Well, research firm Kantar Japan says that a whopping two-thirds of those who have left DoCoMo for greener pastures have done so to buy an iPhone. The deal is big for DoCoMo, which formerly dominated the Japanese mobile market and has seen its market share shrink. But it's also a big deal for Apple, which now has full carrier distribution in the island nation. Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore thinks that an additional 10 million iPhones couid be sold in Japan in 2014, with most of them being the higher end iPhone 5s. That's enough to add about $2 to Apple's earnings per share for 2014, just from adding one carrier.
Kantar: Windows Phone still growing in the US, now has 5.6 percent share
Now that it's collecting cash from Nokia for WP8, Microsoft might want to considering buying it flowers, as the mobile OS has picked up market share considerably over last quarter in the US -- apparently at the expense of Apple's iOS. According to numbers from Kantar (which only tracked phone, not tablet OS's), WP jumped from 4.1 percent the previous quarter to 5.6 percent in Q2 2013, a period in which Nokia released the Lumia 620 and began shipping its Lumia 820 and 920 in volume. BlackBerry held its tiny share of 0.7 percent stateside over Q1 despite the availability of the Z10, while Android saw a half-point bump to 51.7 percent -- though if Samsung and HTC's lofty sales estimates for the GS 4 and One hold, that might change considerably next time. Meanwhile, Apple fell from a 43.5 percent share last quarter to 41.4 percent, perhaps because its flagship iPhone 5 is due for a refresh -- something we might see soon.
Windows Phone sees big gains at the expense of BlackBerry and Symbian
Alright, so Microsoft is in no danger of toppling iOS or Android anytime soon. But the analytics firm Kantar has seen significant growth for Windows Phone, largely at the expense of BlackBerry. In practically every major market WP8 has started to chip away at its competitors, growing from 6.2 percent to 6.7 percent share in the UK in just one month. Twelve months ago it was at only three percent in the country. The most dramatic ascent has taken place in Italy where it accounted for just 5.4 percent of handsets sold in February of 2012, and now makes up 13.1 percent of sales. Even in the US Windows Phone is seeing steady, if hardly eye-popping growth. Symbian and BlackBerry are obviously the biggest losers. In Mexico, both platforms have seen double digit drops in their share of sales over the last year. While in the UK, the company formerly known as RIM has gone from a seemingly secure third place with 16.8 percent of the market to a quickly fading fourth with 5.1 percent is just 12 months. Meanwhile, Apple is sitting pretty with hardly a change to its position and Android continues its juggernaut-like assault on all markets. To see the complete global figures check out the images after the break.
Kantar: Android back on top of US smartphone share in January with Sprint's help
Most US smartphone market share estimates last fall saw Apple retake the lead as it rode a wave of iPhone 5 sales. While there was always a question as to how long that trend would last, new data from Kantar Worldpanel supports beliefs that it was really more of a momentary pop. Android reportedly took back the lead at 49.4 percent of American sales between November and January, improving its overall position versus the same month last year. Not that everyone else was necessarily hurting -- iOS still had a 45.9 percent slice of the pie, and the continued Windows Phone 8 rollout took Microsoft up to 3.2 percent. The real wounds were dealt to a pre-transition BlackBerry and Nokia's outgoing Symbian. We seldom get an explanation as to why such shifts take place, but the researchers suggest that a significant chunk of the January switch-up can be assigned to one carrier: Sprint. Its decision to cut the Galaxy S III's contract price to $99 supposedly helped Samsung's flagship climb from 14 percent of Sprint sales in October to 39 percent over the more recent 3-month span. The Galaxy S III didn't play as much of a role elsewhere, Kantar says. Sprint's average contract pricing for Android also dipped to $95 at the same time, helping Samsung alone get 60.3 percent of the network's business as customers snapped up bargains. Big Yellow only played a small part in the overall US market, as you'll see in the detailed charts after the break, but it may have been large enough to tip the balance in OS preferences at the start of 2013.
The Daily Roundup for 01.22.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
iPhone number one in Japan for the holiday season
We already know Apple's hardware was a hit in China during the last part of 2012, and new data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech shows that Japan felt the same way, at least when it comes to the iPhone. According to the firm's most recent data from the end of 2012, the iPhone holds an astonishing two-thirds of the Japanese smartphone market. Kantar's figures also show that Windows Phone is beginning to gain a foothold in Europe, but it remains far behind iOS and Android in the US and China. Android remained in first place on a global scale, though iOS does currently hold the crown in the states and Japan. [Via: The Loop]
Kantar: iPhone 5 boosts Apple's US smartphone share to 53.3 percent, Android still tops in Europe
Stop us if you've heard this one before: the launch of a flagship, brand-defining smartphone gives its creator a swift leap in market share immediately afterwards. There's no surprise that the iPhone 5 will have improved Apple's standing in the US, then, but Kantar Worldpanel's market share study suggests that the lift was more than some expected. The firm estimates that Apple climbed to 53.3 percent of American smartphone share in the three months leading up to late November. The figure is both Apple's highest ever for the country as well as its first venture past the 50 percent mark. Android in this climate held on to 41.9 percent of the market, hinting that many of those market-shifting iPhone sales came after October. Kantar expects a similar story this month, although it's not predicting how well the Cupertino crew will fare beyond that. Lest anyone take the results out of context, Kantar points out that it's often a Google-friendly world. Android represents 61 percent of smartphone sales in the five largest European countries, while Apple's share in countries like Brazil and China is still small. There is an upside for Microsoft on this wider scale -- a year of Nokia Lumia sales and the early results of the Windows Phone 8 launch have reportedly pushed Redmond's platform back up to 4.7 percent in those five European nations. We're a long way from going beyond a two-horse race in the smartphone field, but there's at least hints of change on the horizon.
Shocker: smartphone users like bigger screens, market share may respond accordingly
There's been a trend towards big smartphones. Sometimes, really big. Even so, concerns have persisted that the cart is driving the horse -- that customers are buying big phones because that's what's available, not because they have a preference. Kantar Worldpanel ComTech might not put that issue to bed once and for all, but its latest study suggests that there's at least some appeal to all that extra glass. Among Android phones sold in the past three months across eight countries, 29 percent of them had a screen larger than 4.5 inches. Their owners were unsurprisingly more active as well, using the internet and watching videos more often than those whose phones have more modest displays. Market share might be following suit. Throughout the countries Kantar is tracking, Android still has roughly half or more of the market, ranging from 46.8 percent in Brazil to a staggering 86.8 percent of Spain. In Europe alone, it was up by just over a fifth from a year ago. We know iOS is taking a beating outside of the US as a result. Before anyone calls the trend irreversible, however, remember that we're on the edge of an unpredictable period: we know some mobile fans have been holding out for a new iPhone, and all the apparent rumors have Apple choosing a bigger screen that might satisfy some outstanding gripes with screen sizes. We're also anticipating at least a few Windows Phone wildcards that could shake up the status quo and make this a three-horse race.
Kantar: Windows Phone clawing back share thanks to Nokia, but Android still rules the roost
It's seldom the case that we get to look at world smartphone market share on a national level, but Kantar WorldPanel has given a rare peek that might give Windows Phone fans some good news to crow about. Even though things haven't always gone well for the Microsoft camp, Nokia phones like the Lumia 800 sparked a minor Renaissance in some countries in the three months leading up to mid-April: Windows Phone was up to between three and four percent in France, Italy, the UK and the US. The Metro interface must also be sehr gut for Germans, which nearly doubled Windows Phone's local share to six percent in that short space of time. Kantar is eager to point out that it's still mostly a tale of Android and iOS successes, though. Google took extra ground in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US, while Apple was on a tear both on its native soil and in the UK. HTC's upbeat predictions may have played a significant part in Android's continued rise -- the One X cracked the British top 10 list despite having only been in shops for a few days. About the only underdog story not going well in early spring was RIM's, where the BlackBerry's share of the US was cut to a third of its year-ago glory at three percent.