Apple not bringing as many new followers into the tent - Investor's Business Daily

Apple (AAPL) increasingly is preaching to the converted when it comes to its latest model smartphones.

A new survey shows that most iPhone 5S and 5C buyers already owned iPhones, and they aren't upgrading as fast as they used to.

Chicago-based Consumer Intelligence Research Partners polled 400 consumers who activated an iPhone in the U.S. after the launch of the latest iPhones on Sept. 20. It found that 65% of iPhone 5S and 5C buyers were already iPhone users, vs. 55% a year earlier when the iPhone 5 was launched.

The survey data also indicate that the low-hanging fruit of consumers moving from feature phones to smartphones has been mostly picked. About 10% of iPhone buyers since the 5S and 5C launch were first-time smartphone buyers, down from 20% last year, CIRP partner and co-founder Mike Levin told IBD on Friday.

On a positive note, the number of Google (GOOG) Android smartphone users who switched to iPhone increased this go-round to 21% from 16% last fall, CIRP said.

But Apple isn't getting as many customers switching from other platforms like BlackBerry (BBRY) and Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Phone this time out. All told, 24% of iPhone buyers switched from other smartphones since the 5S and 5C launched, vs. 26% a year ago.

The data are indicative of slowing growth in the iPhone ecosystem, Levin says.

A worrisome trend for Apple is that fewer iPhone buyers are upgrading from the most recent flagship iPhone.

"We see a noticeable decrease in the number of iPhone buyers that seem to want the latest, most advanced phone," CIRP partner and co-founder Josh Lowitz said in a press release. "For the iPhone 5S/5C, 6% of buyers upgraded from the year-old iPhone 5. In contrast, at the launch of the iPhone 5 in September 2012, 12% of customers upgraded from the year-old iPhone 4S."

Meanwhile, Apple's chief smartphone rival, Samsung, continues to devour the Android market.

Mobile and Web analytics marketing firm Localytics on Friday said its study showed that Samsung had a 63% share of Android smartphones and tablets.

HTC came in second with 6.5% market share, followed by LG (5.9%), Sony (SNE) (5.6%) and Google's Motorola (5%).

Eight of the 10 most popular Android smartphones are made by Samsung, Localytics said. Samsung's Galaxy S3 leads the pack with 15.1% market share, followed by the Galaxy S4 with 7.4%.

The Android tablet market is slightly more competitive. Samsung claims five of the top 10 most popular Android tablets, including the top two spots with the 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2 (21.8% market share) and 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab 2 (16.7%). Coming in third was Google's Nexus 7 tablet with 15.2% market share, followed by Amazon.com 's (AMZN) 7-inch Kindle Fire HD with 9.8% share.

In Q3, Samsung was the top smartphone vendor overall, shipping 81.2 million smartphones, accounting for 31.4% of total unit shipments worldwide. Apple was second with 33.8 million units shipped and 13.1% market share, research firm IDC said.

In tablets, Samsung was No. 2 overall behind Apple in Q3. Apple shipped 14.1 million tablets in the third quarter for market share of 29.6%. Samsung shipped 9.7 million tablets for 20.4% market share, IDC said.

RELATED: Apple Projected To Gain Smartphone Share.

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