Apple’s worldwide share of smartphone sales surged in most countries for the three months ending November 2014, compared to a year earlier, according to data released Wednesday from research firm Kantar Worldpanel. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus helped Apple grow its share of smartphone sales in every country measured except for Japan, while Android- and Windows-based competitors floundered.
Most notably, Android saw its first decline in smartphone sales in the U.S. since September 2013, a drop of 2.0 percent to 48.4 percent overall. Conversely, Apple saw a 4.3 percent jump in the U.S. year-over-year, reaching 47.4 percent of new smartphone sales.
Although up 6.3 percent in the EU overall, Apple’s biggest gain game from Great Britain, where its sales share rose 12.2 percent, compared to a 6.7 percent drop for Android and 3.6 percent drop for Windows.
The only territory where Apple saw a decline in sales share during the measured period was Japan, where the company’s share fell 15.3 percent year-over-year. Kantar attributes this decline to unusually high sales in Japan in 2013 as a result of Apple’s deal with NTT DoCoMo, the country’s largest mobile carrier. Now that the effect of that deal has been absorbed by the market, Apple’s percentage of smartphone sales has normalized in the country.
The report notes that the decline in Android-based smartphone sales has not impacted all Android manufacturers equally. Samsung in particular saw notable declines in most European markets, while Motorola’s refreshed Moto X and Moto G gave the company a small increase in sales during the measured quarter.
Kantar’s numbers don’t include data for December, a month that many will be looking at to determine the impact of the holiday shopping season on mobile device share.