A new survey from the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) paints a potentially troubling picture for Android. CIRP looked at new iPhone sales for the month of April, and found that a whopping 38% of new iPhones sold in the month were to people who already owned a smartphone. Nearly 1 in every 4 iPhones sold (23%) during the month of April was to an Android user, up 5% from the 18% reported in the February 2012 report.
This move of Android users towards iOS could be indicative of a trend we’ll see play out in coming quarters with the release of the next iPhone, or could represent normal churn between operating systems. No data on the number of iPhone users purchasing Android devices in April was presented by CIRP. It’s possible that 15-20% movement is considered normal churn, though this seems unlikely given that most existing smartphone owners are tied to one platform or the other due to ecosystem purchases (apps, music, games, etc.). It could, however, be indicative of growing user frustrations with Android.
When it came to U.S. Carriers offering the iPhone, AT&T maintained it’s market dominance with 51% of iPhone owners on Ma Ball (down 2% from February), followed by Verizon with 37% and Sprint with 12%. We expect the gap between Verizon and AT&T to shrink even further as time goes on; Verizon only began offering the iPhone last year, while AT&T has been in bed with Apple since 2007.
[via Fortune, Apple Insider]