Analyst Carl Howe Suggests iPhone Loyalty Will Surpass Android "Peak"

This week analyst Carl Howe of Yankee Group has made it clear that though the Samsung GALAXY S 4 has "made good headlines", Apple will continue to sell smartphones. In Howe's analysis of the mobile market today, he suggests that both Samsung and Android are losing smartphone share to iOS. Yankee Group used both ownership and purchase intent data they've collected to bring Howe to the conclusion that Android has reached "peak" US share – meanwhile, he concludes, iPhone will continue to grow.

According to their most recent study, Yankee Group has found that 9 percent of Apple device owners plan to switch to another platform when they next need to make a phone purchase. This is low compared to the percentage of users owning Android devices looking to switch away from Android specifically is 24 percent of those surveyed. Yankee Group also found that 18 percent of Android device owners planned on switching specifically to Apple products in their next smartphone purchase.

This same study by Yankee Group found that consumer intent to purchase Samsung phones is "less than half of that of iPhones" in the USA. They go on to note that iPhone intent to buy is "statistically tied" with intent to purchase "all Android phones combined."

Howe suggests that these figures point toward Apple's powerful "black hole" ecosystem. With this system of devices and software Apple uses, Howe says, there's a following of consumers who never leave. Howe and the Yankee Group's study say that Android smartphones are "losing one out of every six customers to manufacturers" while Apple grows.

With these points in place, Howe says Apple ownership will be driven "well past" android ownership by 2015, and will go on to "reinforce Apple's dominance in tablets" as well.

[via Yankee Group]