Next June 6 will start the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2022), in which the technology giant is expected to announce news about its software and operating systems. It’s a forum that will bring together developers from around the world who help create the apps and services that make Apple devices so valuable.
In other words, this event is not a catalyst for sales of the company’s products, but rather its importance is more long-term, summarizes Peter Richardsonresearch director of the consultancy Counterpoint Research in an interview with OKDIARIO. In any case, what is announced will delight fans of Apple products, which in Spain are not few.
However, if we compare the popularity of apple brand devices in other European countries, we could say that there is a palpable difference in demand, which has an explanation: the high price of these devices and lower disposable income of Spaniards.
«Apple has been quite expensive and Spain is perhaps more thrifty. Consequently, the iOS ecosystem it has not been so widely adopted in Spain”, explains Richardson, referring to the possibility of using several Apple devices that connect to each other and work together. In that way, a network effect occurs when a large percentage of the population uses one type of smartphone ecosystem.
In countries like United Kingdom o SwissApple accounts for more than half of the smartphones in use, while the market share is also high in Germany y Franceindica Richardson. «Apple was aggressively promoted in the early years in which the iPhone was available from mobile operators. Many consumers bought into the Apple ecosystem, and then his friends and family did too. Certain applications, for example iMessage they work brilliantly between two iPhone users, but less so if one user has Android. So iPhone users are attracted to other Apple devices like the iPad y Apple Watch. Once you commit to the ecosystem it’s harder to leave it », she adds.
However, its impact in Spain has been lower, with a 14% market share in the first trimester, compared to 35% of Samsung and 29% of Xiaomi. Per capita income is lower than in its European neighbors and “as a result, it has failed to reach a critical mass of users,” says Richardson.
Nor does he believe that this situation will change excessively in the future. “Perhaps products like the iPhone SE offer good performance at a lower price, but the design might not be as attractive as some Android smartphones,” he says. In short, it predicts that Apple’s market share will remain “similar or slightly higher” in the last quarter of 2022, given that new iPhone models could be launched in September, which tends to increase sales in the first months in which products are available.
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