As the smartphone industry grows bigger, Apple Inc. (AAPL, Financial) is standing out among its competitors by bringing some of the best phone accessories to the attention of the hungry public. So far, the company’s sales are forging ahead with Apple outdoing its U.S. counterpart in that region.
Recently, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech announced that Apple had taken the lead in the U.S. market. Already, the iPhone 6 is ahead of Android in sales. The report went on to say that the company is outselling the U.S. by a mere 1%. In this quarter, Apple iPhone 6’s sales beat other smartphones to the punch with Samsung Electronics Company (SSUN, Financial) taking second place.
Apple Inc. sells smartphone accessories with or without a written contract and this makes it even more lucrative for the company to make great profits consistently. With lots of devices available for sale to the public, Apple has a bigger advantage over any of its rivals.
Not only is Android losing ground in the U.S., but in certain parts of Europe as well. Android’s market shares went down 3.8% over a period of years and presently are settling at 66.1%. Apple’s iOS shares, on the other hand, went up by 6.2%. In Great Britain alone, iOS sales share grew 13.1%. Other Apple Inc. competitors like Sony (SNE, Financial), Samsung and LG Electronics Inc. (LGLD, Financial) lost chumps of market sales as well.
However, in Italy, Android sales escalate because of the company’s prepaid devices policy plan that they have in place. Apple in Italy has to be taking a backseat to Android because of consumer preferences.
Apple’s smartphone sales in the U.S. stand at about 59% and in Europe approximately 76%. Already, signs are showing that these figures will grow as the company continues to roll out new devices for the hungry public to enjoy.
As the company eyes other markets such as Mexico and Brazil, the need to carry out some research as to how many persons living in those countries already have a smartphone. If enough persons already are using the device, then it might be wise to shift the focus to customer retention.
As Apple Inc. continues to brave the market and grow its business worldwide, the company’s shares began to show some promising signs. Since recently, the company announced that they would pay $0.47 of its quarterly dividend to shareholders on record by February 12. However, for each shareholder to qualify for payment, he or she will have to settle the company’s stock ownership by February 9. This would leave investors until February 5 to complete their share purchases.
Since 2012, Apple has been paying out money in the form of dividends to shareholders almost at each fiscal quarter’s end. The company gave out a stock split of 7-for-one and in addition went ahead and did a dividend conversion of $3.29 for each share to 47 cents per share. Later on Apple went into a $17 billion repurchasing deal and bought back some of its own stocks in September. In addition, the company went on the open market and purchased another $5 billion stock, thus bringing up its stock holdings to 5.825 billion shares outstanding.
The year 2014 saw Apple shares climbing 48.28% well ahead of Microsoft’s 11.56% increase. For Google (GOOG, Financial), though, there was not much comparison as their nonvoting GOOG C share declined 5.25% and their GOOGL standard A class shares loss of $.73%.
Apple shares rose 7.49% since early 2015 and the company hopes to see a steady acceleration growth during the rest of the year. Since 2014 proved to be a good year for Apple, analysts are holding to the view that 2015 will be better.
One reason why they believe that profit will continue to increase in 2015, is due to the company’s intention to release its new Apple Watch later in the year. So far, on the stock exchange, bulls are steadying themselves to get in on the profits when the watch is placed on the market for sale. “The device is expected to kick Apple’s profit margin upward by at least 5%,” say some analysts.
Today, Apple Inc. stands as a giant smartphone company in the world and a leader in some innovation technologies. In the future, many still see the company making powerful growth on the international market that will allow investors to continue cashing in on dividends and stock.
