Report shows iPhone 5S makes fast start in China, hits 10% of iPhones in use

Apple's iPhone 5S has been a dramatic hit in China, comprising 12% of sales there during October, says market research company Counterpoint.
The result comes even before its deal with China Mobile, the world's largest carrier, which is expected to begin taking preorders for the phone on Thursday 12 December ahead of an official announcement of a 4G network next week.
The sales boost in China propelled the 5S, the top-end iPhone which has a built-in fingerprint reader, to be the best-selling phone worldwide during October, according to Counterpoint.
It also comes as separate data from analytics company Mixpanel suggests that the 5S now makes up 10% of all iPhones in use, and that the radically redesigned iOS 7 operating system has achieved a faster takeup than last year's release of iOS 6.
Tom Kang, a research at Counterpoint, says that although the 5S didn't create the long queues that the release of the 4S in China did in early 2012, "it definitely was more successful compared to what [the] iPhone 5 [released in December 2012] registered in terms of overall sales in a month."
Neil Shah of Counterpoint said: "Apple's smartphone marketshare climbed to the 12% mark in China in
October, instantly making it the third largest smartphone player in the market – up from a modest 3% share in September."

The introduction of the iPhone 5S has boosted Apple's share of smartphone sales in China. (Note that total sales volumes may vary between months, so shares should be considered on monthly basis.) Photograph: /Counterpointresearch

The abrupt jump suggests that Chinese buyers were waiting for the much-expected new models of the phone - and particularly the more expensive 5S, which is seen as a status symbol among some wealthier consumers. With a launch on China Mobile, which has more than 750m subscribers, imminent, Kang points out that it will be available on the three main carriers in the country, which between them have 391m 3G subscribers - half as many again as the total US phone market. "[Having[ Apple iPhone 5s at all three carriers will for sure ignite a 'price war' boosting the overall iPhone 5s sales in China," Kang said. "This might allow Apple to even reach the No. 1 smartphone player in December or January in China."
China is the world's largest smartphone market, and one of the fastest-growing. Smartphone sales there in the third quarter of 2013 totalled 87.7m, according to data supplied to the Guardian by research company IDC, with sales growth at 52% year-on-year compared to 40% for the rest of the world. Samsung was the biggest seller of smartphones in the third quarter, averaging more than 6m phones per month.
Meanwhile Samsung's share in China headed upwards, helped by price discounting and the release of the Galaxy Note 3. Peter Richardson of Counterpoint said that rapid sales of the Note 3 made it the fifth best-selling device for the month worldwide.

Phone sales rankings for China in October 2013 show Apple's iPhone 5S selling well - though Samsung's Note 3 has also risen strongly. Photograph: /Counterpointresearch

Meanwhile separate data from the analytics company Mixpanel suggests that the iPhone 5S now makes up 10% of all iPhone in use. The iPhone 5C, which has been less popular despite its slightly lower price point, makes up 3.4% of the iPhones in use.
Because Mixpanel provides data in the form of ratios, it's impossible to know whether the number of iPhones in use has fallen, stayed the same or grown - though data from ComScore, another research company, suggests that the number of iPhone users in the US has grown by 2.7m in the past three months, suggesting continual growth in general iPhone ownership.

Mixpanel suggests that iPhone 5S use is now at 10% of iPhones, against 3.4% for the iPhone 5C. Photograph: /PR/Mixpanel

Mixpanel's data also says that iOS 7 is now used on 78.3% of devices. Its figures show iOS 6 being used on 18.8% of devices, and earlier versions on 2.9%.
Though Mixpanel's public data only goes back to April, other analytics reports by another analystics network, Chitika, from the same time last year say that iOS 6 had a 72.8% uptake at that time.
A posting by Chitika says that its own data shows iOS 7 "surpassing those of [iOS 6]", based on the OS being run by devices connecting to its systems.
However the apparent rapid rise is a ratio, and might not necessarily indicate that old devices are being updated. As well as releasing the iPhone 5S and 5C, Apple also refreshed its iPad line with the iPad Air and iPad mini, and if those - which have iOS 7 installed already - have been bought and activated in large enough numbers they could raise the numbers of iOS 7 devices recorded by Chitika and Mixpanel.

Chitika says that owners of older iPads appear to be less keen to upgrade then iPhone owners, perhaps because they do not get features such as the AirDrop file exchange.
"While still-active legacy devices make it unlikely for iOS 7 adoption to substantially surpass the nearly 90% adoption rate of iOS 6, the latest operating system will likely reach that point in a much quicker timeframe than its forerunner," Chitika comments.

 Via: theguardian