Why do they say "All time high Android switchers"... ?

[mark-vdw]

I was reading the transcript of the investor call yesterday, noticed one of the things Cook is stressing is that they have never seen such high % of Android switchers. I wonder why they mention that metric - it sounds like a good thing at first, because they seem to position it as being a leading metric to indicate future market share. But if you think about it, the "% of iPhone purchasers coming from Android" metric probably just reflects the fact that their market share is declining (so a trailing metric from past market share). It seems strange to me that they stress this one so much while it's real value seems rather hard to define.

Any one have any thoughts on this?

 

[Ulenspiegel]

Well, to be very honest with you it is really tiresome to deal with TC's recent statements (i.e. AW sales numbers). In this case I wonder how was it possible to determine that all the "switchers" are coming from the Android user base? Secondly, the "switchers" can't be new owners w/o any Android past? Thirdly, does this number contain the Android users who don't "switch", just bought an iPhone as well? There are many users who use both platfoms, what is their status, Android or iPhone "switcher"? etc.

 

[theluggage]

But if you think about it, the "% of iPhone purchasers coming from Android" metric probably just reflects the fact that their market share is declining

It could just reflect the fact that the smartphone market is now more of a two horse race, so a higher proportion of "switchers" are coming from Android rather than Nokia/Symbian, Blackberry, Windows and generic "feature phones".

However, Apple were late to the large-screen phone party, and so the iPhone 6/6+ has probably won some people back from Android.

 

[maflynn]

Because he's using the call in to promote his business at the expense of Android. I'm sure Google, uses similar tactics.

 

[Jessica Lares]

He emphasized on it because of the fact that at all these different price points all the iPhones are at now, it's more or less very equal in profits across them all. And even though they have people who are still holding onto our previous models, they have no doubt that we'll upgrade to another iPhone.

And now that we have all these NEXT, JUMP, etc plans, the iPhones are cheaper. When I went to upgrade, it was like $25 for the 16 GB model. A few years ago, that would get you a mid-range Android. So he basically is pointing out how given the same prices for all these various handsets, mostly Android, people are going iPhone.

People could be doing the same with the more pricier models too. How would they know? Carriers probably give them this data.