Apple’s big Q4 2014 (fiscal Q1 2015) hasn’t gone undocumented. It’s a monumental feat, and even the most diehard Apple opponents can’t deny it was an impressive performance by a company thought to be on a relative decline. But evidence that the performance was as big as we thought it was is backed up by new numbers released by Kantar that shows mobile sales market share for each region in Q4 2014.
The biggest takeaway is that Apple has finally reclaimed the sales crown in the United States. The last time they beat the collective army of Android smartphones was in the 4th quarter of 2012. There is one funny thing to note about the feat: at 47.7% for iOS vs 47.6%, the difference is a very slim margin of 0.1%.
That said, it’s still very impressive considering it’s one company up against dozens upon dozens of Android manufacturers out there, and no one knows how to squeeze the most profit out of their lineup like Apple does.
The picture is sure to head back into its previous direction in the months ahead. Apple understandably expects worsened performance this quarter (it’ll be very hard to top a quarter where you made the most revenue in the history of business), and there are many exciting Android flagships on the horizon that should get some money flowing back to the other manufacturers.
United States wasn’t the only market where Android lost to iOS. Apple took a sizable lead of more than 22% in Japan, though that’s actually 8% worse than the same period a year ago. They also beat Android in Australia by nearly 3%. Everywhere else? Well, let’s just say there’s nothing to worry about for Android on a worldwide scale with Android taking at least 9 major markets by very wide margins.
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