Apple Loses European Market Share

It seems the Euro crises could be causing Europeans to look beyond expensive iPhones, and opt for cheaper alternatives powered by Google’s Android. A study by the Kantar Group, a research firm based in London, revealed that Apple’s smartphone market share declined in France, Germany, Italy and Spain to name a few in the last few months. [1]

 

Our $503 price estimate for Apple stock is about 25% above market price.

 

See our complete analysis for Apple stock here

 

Apple’s loss is Android’s gain

 

According to the report, during the 12 weeks ending November month, Apple’s smartphone market share declined from 29% to 20% while it declined from 27% to 22% in Germany. [1] The iPhone 4S helped Apple gain market share in the U.S. and Britain, but significant market share loss in Europe should be concerning Apple. Weakening global economy and fear of recessionary environment coming back in the near future could make this situation worse for Apple. Android, on the other hand, continues to flourish and enjoyed a dominant market share of 61% in Germany with the Samsung Galaxy II, its flagship product.

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Google+ reaches 62M users, still not giving Facebook a run for its money

Google+ has reached 62 million registered users and is signing up 625,000 new users per day, according to unofficial Google+ statistician and Ancestry.com founder Paul Allen.

For a social network that was invite-only until July 2011, those numbers are not bad. However, Google+ has a long way to go if it wants to catch up to Facebook’s 800 million users.

Google+ has been adding new users by the tens of millions just about every month since it became available to the general public back in July, according to Allen’s report. So far in December, Google+ has registered 12 million new members.

Allen says that based on the current rate of growth, Google+ can expect to see 100 million new users by the end of February, and 293 million members by the end of next year. But Allen is expecting accelerated growth for the social network which could put Google+ at 400 million users by the end of 2012. What’s the reasoning behind Allen’s predictions? He points to the approximately 700,000 Android devices that are activated each day, which he contends will draw more users to Google+.

A Google spokesperson told VentureBeat that the company does not “have any additional metrics to provide based on Paul Allen’s estimates,” but that more than 40 million people have signed up for the social network. That number comes from Google’s latest earnings call which took place on October 13.

Even if Allen’s predictions are correct and Google+ hits 400 million users by this time next year, it still won’t compete with Facebook’s 800 million (and counting) very active members. While this growth is good news for those who want their friends and families fill up their Google+ streams, its unlikely that Google’s social network will overshadow Facebook anytime soon.

In an attempt to garner more attention, Google+ rolled out a new ad campaign over the holiday season. The ads featured NBA annoucers and the Muppets to highlight Hangouts and other cool features of the social network. Perhaps the ads were enough to remind people that yes, Google+ does still exist and help it nab those 12 million extra users for December.

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