Apple's iconic brand iPhone's latest offering 5c is 'too highly priced' for emerging markets like India, aiding iPhone 4s to be the volume driver, research firm Gartner said Thursday.
However, the firm said, in mature markets like the US and Europe the price difference between the iPhone 5c (Review) and iPhone 5s (Review I Pictures) is not enough.
"In emerging markets, the iPhone 4S will continue to be the volume driver at the low end as the lack of subsidy in most markets leaves the iPhone 5c too highly priced to help drive further penetration," Gartner said.
Apple did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment on the issue.
In India, Apple is selling 16 GB iPhone 5c at Rs. 41,900 and 32 GB variant at Rs. 53,500, while, iPhone 5s is available at Rs. 53,500 (16GB), Rs. 63,500 (32 GB) and Rs. 71,500 (64 GB).
(Also see: iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c now officially available in India)
"Gartner believes the price difference between the iPhone 5c and 5s is not enough in mature markets, where prices are skewed by operator subsidies, to drive users away from the top of the line model," it added.
A contract-free and unlocked 16GB version of the iPhone 5c is available for USD 549 (about Rs. 34,700) in the US, while an unlocked and contract-free iPhone 5s can be bought for USD 649 (about Rs. 41,000).
In the July-September quarter of 2013, Apple's smartphone sales reached 30.3 million units, up 23.2 percent from the same quarter of 2012.
(Also see: Apple revises quarterly forecast after selling new iPhones in record numbers)
"While, the arrival of the new iPhones 5s and 5c had a positive impact on overall sales, such impact could have been greater had they not started shipping late in the quarter," Gartner said.
The firm added that there has been some inventory built up for the iPhone 5c, whereas the demand for 5s has been good leading to its stocks being sold out in many markets.
Besides, the research firm said that worldwide sales of mobile phones are expected to rise by 3.4 percent to touch 1.81 billion units this year compared to the previous year.
The firm, while giving July-September 2013 mobile phone sales data, said globally mobile phone sales touched 455.6 million units in the third quarter, clocking a growth of 5.7 percent from the same period last year with smartphones sales accounting for a record 55 percent of the overall sales.
Worldwide smartphone sales reached 250.2 million units, up 45.8 percent from the same quarter of 2012, it said.
(Also see: Quarterly smartphone shipments top 250 million for the first time)
"Asia/Pacific led the growth in both markets the smartphone segment with 77.3 percent increase and the mobile phone segment with 11.9 percent growth," Gartner added.
The regions to show an increase in the overall mobile phone market were Western Europe, which returned to growth for the first time this year, and the Americas, it said.
According to The Korea Economic Daily, Apple has signed a new deal with Samsung under which the latter will supply processors for Apple's iPhone, starting 2015. The report cites industry sources to inform that the agreement was signed on July 14, and that Samsung will produce the new chips deploying the 14 nano FinFET technology for Apple's iPhone 7 which is expected to release in the second half of 2015.
Samsung has produced chips for Apple's iPhone since it was first introduced in 2007. It still manufactures the Apple A6 processor that powers the iPhone 5. However, it was reported that Apple was cutting Samsung from A7 production as the two companies were at loggerheads after their rivalry in the smartphones segment and patent disputes across the world. Apple signing a new deal with Samsung comes as a surprise as it was believed that the former was cutting its reliance on the South Korean company.
In fact, the news comes shortly after it was reported that Apple had signed a three year agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company(TSMC) and its partner Global UniChip to make its new A-series chips built through 20nm, 16nm and 10nm process nodes. The report had cited industry sources to inform that TSMC would commence production of the Cupertino giant's A8 processor in small quantities in July 2013, and increase production capacity after December. It also said that a part of the chip maker's capacity would be used for manufacturing new Apple A9 and A9X processors.
The Apple A8 processor is expected to power a new iPhone which is expected to release in early 2014, while the A9 and A9X chips are likely to power new iPhone and iPad products.
Another report by The Wall Street Journal had reiterated that Apple had indeed signed an agreement with TSMC, citing unidentified TSMC executives as source. It said that the move was the latest in a series of efforts by Apple to lessen its reliance on parts produced by Samsung, however, it added that Samsung would remain Apple's main supplier of high-resolution screens, memory chips and processors used in mobile devices through next year.
According to a new report by web analytics firm StatCounter, users accessing the Internet from Samsung phones account for 25.47 percent, overtaking iPhone users by a difference of less than 1 percent. Internet usage from iPhones was at 25.09 percent, followed by usage from Nokia users at 21.96 percent and from BlackBerry users at 3.62 percent.
It's worth pointing out that these figures are based on a sample methodology. The StatCounter code is installed on more than 3
million websites globally that allows them to track usage. According to the company these sites cover various activities and geographic locations and record over 15 billion page views to these sites, every month.
Last year, Nokia led the pack in terms of mobile Internet usage from its phones, registering a usage of 28.05 percent, followed by Apple which saw usage of 25.43 percent and Samsung on 19.46 percent.
This essentially indicates that Internet usage from Samsung phones witnessed a rise of almost 6 percent implying that more Samsung users are browsing the web from their devices. Most Samsung smartphones are powered by Google's Android operating system.
It's worth pointing out that in countries such as UK and US, Internet usage from iPhones is still more than usage from Samsung phones. While 54.84 percent of all mobile Internet usage in the US was from iPhones, only 18.3 percent was from Samsung phones. Even in the UK, Apple leads with a usage share of 47.97 percent while Samsung's share was 20.45 percent.
In terms of mobile browsers, Android leads with a share of 29.06 percent, followed by Safari (iPhone and iPod touch only) which had a share of 24.98 percent. Opera was in the third place registering a share of 16.06 percent. Chrome for Android's share was 3.23 percent.
Talking about mobile operating systems, the report reveals that Internet usage from Android was at 37.93 percent, followed by iOS which was at 25.09 percent and Nokia's Series 40 platform at 13.43 percent. Windows Phone's share was still pretty low at 1.4 percent, behind BlackBerry which was at 3.46 percent.