Before the launch of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, Apple’s market share in South Africa was 9%.
They mainly lost share to Huawei. Samsung continued to improve market share in South Africa.
The question before the launch was “Will the new iPhones improve their market share in SA?”
The answer: No.
Four years in a row of disappointment once the new iPhone is released has been one of the keys to Samsung and Huawei’s growth. Consumers would rather spend R8000 on a premium Huawei P10 then spend R17 000 on an iPhone 8 which is new, but actually already old as the iPhone X (iPhone 10) is already out.
So we can see things have changed significantly in Apple’s strategy and they are missing a guy like Steve Jobs who was a brilliant sales person and strategist.
Market share of Apple is important in the South African context as you may want to develop a mobile app. It would be advisable to consider development for Android devices only as you will have access to almost 90% of the market.
At this stage it looks like by next year this time Apple will fall below 9% market share in South Africa. Unless something really interesting happens.
So if you invest in App development make Android your first App Store of choice especially if your app targets South Africans.