Report: Phablets Grabbed More Than 20 Percent Of Q1 Smartphone Sales In The US

Last week Flurry released data showing that “phablets” now constitute 20 percent of all active smartphones globally. Echoing this, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech reported that “phablets claimed 21 percent of all US smartphone sales in Q1 2015.” That was up from 6 percent in Q1 2014.

According to the Kantar sales data, the iPhone 6 Plus captured 44 percent of those Q1 phablet sales. Flurry data argue that the iPhone 6 Plus represents about 4 percent of active iOS users globally. A much more substantial 36 percent of active Android users worldwide own phablets.

Phablet sales have been blamed for the flattening of tablet market growth.

Kantar also reported that in Q1 the iPhone enjoyed a larger “switcher” number than Android users coming over from the iPhone:

Among new iOS customers for the first quarter, 11.4 percent switched from Android, compared to 14.6percent who made the switch during the same period in 2014. Among new Android customers, only 5.9 percent came from iOS, compared to 9.8 percent in Q1 2014.

Overall the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus constitute 18 percent of all active Apple smartphone users in the US, says Kantar. The firm added that 64 percent of all active iPhones are the 5 or above.

If these numbers are accurate, the 18 percent figure indicates that more than 80 percent of current US iPhone owners have yet to upgrade. That represents many billions in future iPhone sales for Apple, assuming continued brand loyalty.