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Apple ( AAPL ) maintained its dominance in the U.S. smartphone market in the first quarter despite concerns about slowing iPhone sales, according to a survey by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. Among brands, Apple had the highest share of smartphone activations in the U.S. in the March quarter at 40%, down from 41% in the December quarter, CIRP said Thursday. Samsung came in second with 37%, up from 36% in Q4 last year. A year ago, Apple trailed Samsung in U.S. smartphone activations. In Q1 2015, Samsung was tops with 37% of smartphone activations, followed by Apple with 28%, CIRP said. On an operating system basis, Apple’s iOS software trailed in U.S. smartphone activations in Q1 to Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google Android operating system. Android claimed 57% of domestic smartphone activations across multiple vendors, compared with 40% for iOS, CIRP said. But Apple has gained significantly against Android since Q1 2015, when iOS had just 28% market share to Android’s 69%, CIRP said. “Apple had an improved competitive quarter compared both to the December 2015 and, even more, the March 2015 periods,” CIRP partner and co-founder Josh Lowitz said in a statement. “As a percentage of customers, Apple attracted more Android users than before.” CIRP based its latest findings on a survey of 500 U.S. consumers who activated a new or used phone in the January-March period. In-Line March Quarter Would Be Positive For Apple Apple is scheduled to report its March quarter results on Tuesday after the market close. It postponed the earnings release by a day so Apple executives could attend a memorial service for Silicon Valley leader and former Apple board member Bill Campbell , who died of cancer earlier this week. ITG Investment Research analyst Matthew Goodman on Wednesday boosted his forecast for iPhone sales in the March quarter to 50.7 million units on better-than-expected sell-through trends. That’s roughly in line with the consensus forecast of 50.2 million iPhone unit sales. Also Wednesday, Baird analyst William Power reiterated his outperform rating on Apple stock, with a price target of 130. Apple stock was down more than 1%, below 106, in afternoon trading on the stock market today . “We expect in-line fiscal Q2 results, though note our estimates are modestly below the Street,” Power said in a report. “More notably, we believe Street estimates are too high fiscal Q3 and fiscal Q4, particularly on the heels of recent procurement cuts.” Oppenheimer analyst Andrew Uerkwitz on Wednesday maintained his outperform rating on Apple stock with a price target of 120. “An in-line quarter could help sustain recent momentum (for Apple stock),” he said in a report. “However, we worry about the near-term negative impacts of a lengthening (iPhone) replacement cycle, Apple Watch sentiment seemingly turning negative, and competitive threats emerging as interfacing slowly evolves towards voice and AI messaging.” RELATED: Apple Outlook Cut As iPhone 7 Doesn’t Seem Like Must-Have Device Scalper1 News
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