Apple iPhones dominate the wealthy consumer smartphone segment

By | February 20, 2014

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The more money you have the more likely you own an Apple (AAPL) iPhone. That’s one of the takeaways from a report Thursday by the NPD Group on 2013 smartphone sales trends in the U.S. Among smartphone buyers with annual incomes above $100,000, 65% bought an iPhone in 2013, compared with 19% for a Samsung handset. That income bracket accounted for 33% of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone unit sales last year. IPhone purchase rates decline along with income, the study shows. Among iPhone buyers last year, 24% earned $60,000 to $100,000 a year, 23% earned $30,000 to $60,000, and 20% made less than $30,000 a year. The opposite is true with Samsung smartphone purchase rates. Among Samsung smartphone buyers in 2013, 18% made more than $100,000, 20% earned $60,000 to $100,000 a year, 27% earned $30,000 to $60,000, and 35% made less than $30,000 a year. But smartphone sales growth has slowed to a crawl among the most affluent consumers. The big growth is with the lower income brackets, NPD says. Smartphone sales among consumers making less than $30,000 a year grew at double the industry rate in 2013 and accounted for 31% of all smartphone sales, the largest share of any income demographic, up from 21% in 2011. Smartphone sales growth among affluent consumers, those with over $100,000 in income, rose just 4% in 2013. Affluent consumers made up 23% of buyers in 2013, falling from 31% in 2011, NPD says. “With the fastest-growing segments of the industry in the   Scalper1 News

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