A fifth of US smartphones sold in Q1 2015 were phablets, says Kantar
Phablet smartphones accounted for a 21 per cent share of US mobile sales in the first three months of 2015, according to research from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
Phablets smartphones with screens of 5.5in or larger, boomed with the super-sized Apple iPhone 6 Plus, making up 44 per cent of sales.
Screen size was a leading selling point for phablets for 43 and 47 per cent of iOS and Android users respectively.
Of Apple’s new smartphone customers during the period, 11.4 per cent made the switch from Android. Of new Android users, only 5.9 per cent came from Apple.
Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, said: “LG had a particularly good first quarter with its share growing to 10.8 per cent from 7.4 per cent a year ago, while Samsung was holding on to second place as it prepared for the launch of its new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge in April.
“Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus already represent 18 per cent of all iPhones in use in the US and 64 per cent of the iPhone installed base is an iPhone 5 or newer — good news for the Apple Watch that interacts only with these newer models.”
Despite the dropping conversion rate, Android achieved a market share of 58.1 per cent - a 0.2 per cent boost on Q1 2014.