Apple is the second biggest smartphone sales channel in UK
Where do you buy your smartphones?
If you’re an iPhone user it’s looking like more and more of us are heading direct to Apple to purchase their new device, at least if the experience in the UK is matched elsewhere.
That’s the data carried in an interesting new nugget of research from CCS, which fins that over a fifth of UK smartphone purchasers now get their device from Apple or Samsung directly, compared to just one in 20 people in 2018.
Apple is the second biggest UK smartphone store
What makes this more interesting is that “Apple’s retail store or website was the second-top channel in the research, accounting for 14% of purchases, up from only 3% six years ago. Among iPhone owners, it’s the preferred destination, at 31%, ahead of mobile service providers, at 26%.”
What that means is that Apple has now become the UK’s second biggest smartphone sales channel. Possibly because it offers friendly and easy-to-navigate in-store service, with an online experience to match.
But for CCS, the trend is noteworthy because it means telecom operators have lost their grip on retail. These operators not so long ago dominated the market for phone sales, but now they only have c.25% of the market.
Added to which, Apple’s UK iPhone customers are loyal to the company. The research shows 81% of them are loyal to Apple, with 76% loyal to Samsung. This falls precipitously for other brands who get 37%, the data shows.
Does the network need replacing?
This is important because it means Apple or Samsung can reasonably consider direct to market airtime sales and know they have a good chance of reaching that market.
There’s also implications in the second user market, which continues to quietly grow. It’s a market Apple dominates due to the resilience and long life of its hardware and replacement cycles are getting longer even as consumers continue to navigate to SIM-only plans.
In the UK, “more than four in 10 people now take a SIM-only deal, ahead of bundled airtime and device contracts, chosen by 30%, and pay-as-you-go, selected by 28% of respondents,” CCS said. Though there is also growing demand for all you can use data tariffs.
Satellite, up in the sky
Finally, some interesting insight into satellite communication on smartphones. It appears that already over four in ten people say they are prepared to pay to send messages via satellite in areas that lack mobile coverage.
This hits 70% among those under 35-years old. In other words, if Apple were to offer satellite-based messaging internationally it could charge a little for each message. It even has the charging infrastructure to do so.
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