iPhone Reality in Europe: Low Overall Penetration, Enormous Impact

comScore, Inc. outlined the impact the first three generations of Apple’s iPhone have had on the European mobile market, in light of record pre-sales and extraordinary consumer demand for the iPhone 4, which launches tomorrow. The iPhone currently represents just 4 percent of the EU5 (U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy) mobile market, but 18 percent of the overall EU5 smartphone market. However, the iPhone has facilitated fundamental change in mobile user behaviour and ignited fierce competition among device and operating system (OS) providers. iPhone owners are the most voracious consumers of mobile media: 94 percent use mobile media, 87 percent use applications and 85 percent browse the mobile internet. With just 4 percent share of the European market, iPhone users represent 12 percent of all mobile media users.

Mobile Media Usage Among European Smartphone Owners by OS Vendor 3 Month Average Ending April 2010 Total EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share of Smartphone Owners Engaging in Activity
	Total Smartphone	Symbian	Apple	Microsoft	RIM	Google
Smartphone Marketshare	100%	58%	18%	13%	8%	3%
Mobile Media Usage
Mobile Media (Browsing, Apps, Downloading)	65%	52%	94%	68%	81%	89%
Web Browsing	53%	39%	85%	56%	66%	83%
App Usage	53%	38%	87%	55%	72%	78%

“The iPhone 4 is set to have a huge impact globally with pre-order handsets selling out and retailing websites buckling under the pressure,” said Jeremy Copp, Vice President Mobile Europe, comScore. “To date the iPhone has had a disproportionate impact on the European mobile market considering its relatively modest installed base of around 10 million. It has catalysed the consumption of mobile media and opened the eyes of brands to mobile as an engaging marketing medium. However, it has also prompted other device manufacturers and OS vendors to elevate their game so the poster-child of the smartphone generation now faces serious competition.”  The European smartphone market is growing 38 percent year-on-year, but the most recent year has seen some significant developments. In the last 12 months, although the dominant OS, Symbian, gained device owners, market momentum has now moved to the North American operating systems of RIM, Apple and Google, each of which has grown by substantial percentage over the past year.