Report: iPhone share hit 36% in U.S., fell to 20% in France

Mixed results from a 12-week Kantar Group snapshot of the walk-up to Christmas

Samsung Galaxy S II

The launch of the iPhone 4S lifted Apple's (AAPL) share of the smartphone market rather dramatically the U.S., the U.K. and Australia between early September and the end of November.

But Apple lost ground just as dramatically against less-expensive Google (GOOG) Android phones on the economically troubled continent, according to results released Thursday by the Kantar Group, a research firm based in London.

The iPhone's share of individual smartphone markets, as measured by Kantar and reported by Reuters:

• 36% in the U.S., up from 25% in the same period last year
• 31% in the U.K., up from 21%
• 20% in France, down from 29%
• 22% in Germany, down from 27%, with similar drops in Spain and Italy

"The French market is showing increasing signs of price sensitivity," Kantar's Dominic Sunnebo told Reuters. In Germany, Android's market share hit 61% in Kantar's 12-week study period, led by sales of the Samsung Galaxy S II.

Posted in: Android, Apple, Europe, France, Germany, Google, iPhone, iPhone 4S, Kantar Group, Mobile, Reuters, Samsung Galaxy S II, smartphone

• Robin Williams' impression of an iPhone in Paris

  What if Siri had a French accent -- and an attitude to match?

  If Apple (AAPL) ever opened up a Siri app store, a line of personality modules -- like the haughty Parisian Robin Williams trotted out on The Ellen Show -- could be a real money-maker.

  Via boxerconan at Apple Sanity.

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 1, 2011 3:50 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Ellen DeGeneres, France, iPhone 4S, Paris, Robin Williams, Siri

• Videos: iPhone 4S launches around the world

  Waitin', whoopin' and hollerin' in seven countries and four languages

  Apple (AAPL) launched the iPhone 4S Friday in Australia, Japan, Germany, France, the U.K., Canada and the U.S.

  Videos below the fold as they come in.

  See also our report from New York City, 17 days in the iPhone line: Wet, cold and smelling like Cheetos.

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 14, 2011 4:39 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, iPhone, iPhone 4S, Japan, Mobile, New York City, YouTube

• Videos: Apple ends fiscal year with 7 store openings - update

  It may actually reach its goal of opening 30 new stores in the last quarter of fiscal 2011

  This will be a big weekend for Apple (AAPL) retail, with seven grand openings scheduled on four continents over two days. The new stores, according to ifoAppleStore:

  IFC Mall (Hong Kong)
  Nanjing East (Shanghai)
  Westfield Hornsby (Australia)
  Centro Sicilia (Italy)
  New Haven (Conn.)
  Metrotown (Canada)
  Le Chesnay (France)

  Videos of huge crowds and over-excited staffers have already started to pop up on YouTube, including the first one MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 23, 2011 7:25 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Apple Store, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Nanjing, Shanghai, Westfield Hornsby

• Don't count out nuclear just yet

  As harrowing as the Fukushima debacle has been, it hasn't dimmed the hopes of nuclear technologists, suppliers and manufacturers. In fact, it may even have helped them.

  By Richard Martin, contributor

  FORTUNE -- The summer meeting of the American Nuclear Society could have been a wake.

  The exuberant "nuclear renaissance" of the past few years -- by 2009, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had received applications for 20 new plants -- fizzled in MORE

  Aug 16, 2011 10:37 AM ET
  Posted in: american nuclear society, electricity, France, fukushima, jimmy carter, kilowatt, Microsoft, nuclear power, nuclear power plants, nuclear waste, reactors, TerraPower, uprating, Westinghouse

• iPad 2: Out of stock by Saturday

  A launch perfectly timed to coincide with the end of Apple's second fiscal quarter

  Reports are still drifting in, but it seems likely that most of the 25 countries where Apple (AAPL) launched the iPad 2 on Friday had run out of product by Saturday afternoon.

  Pocket-lint reported Saturday that the two flagship Apple Stores in London -- Regent Street and Covent Garden -- were completely out of stock and wouldn't be MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Mar 27, 2011 7:36 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Canada, France, iPad, iPad 2, Launch, London, Quarterly earnings, Tablets, U.K.

• Apple preps for global iPad 2 stockouts

  Unable to fill U.S. orders, it will make the device unavailable in 25 more countries on Friday

  Last week, for reasons I'd rather not examine too closely, I spent the better part of an hour waiting outside an Apple retail outlet in center city Philadelphia only to be told, 50 minutes before the store was scheduled to open, that its promised overnight shipment of iPad 2s had not arrived.

  It was an MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Mar 22, 2011 1:41 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, iPad, iPad 2, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Steve Jobs, Stock outs, Sweden, Switzerland, U.K.

• Google's Streetview victorious in European Courts

  Deemed legal in Germany, and gets off with a small fine for 'spying' in France.

  A German court has ruled that Google (GOOG) Steetview is  legal.  A German woman had sued the Mountain View,  California company stating that she fear that photos of her, her family and the front of her house would be posted on Google Street View and would thus violate her property and privacy rights.

  The court ruled that it MORE

  Seth Weintraub - Mar 21, 2011 6:36 PM ET
  Posted in: Angela Merkel, CNIL, France, Google, Google Streetview, privacy, Property, Wi-Fi

• Apple staffers go nuts on 3 continents

  Hollering and high fives at store openings in Queensland, Montpellier and New York City

  Someday Apple (AAPL) will open a store and no one will notice.

  But we're not quite there yet.

  The company held grand openings for new retail outlets on three continents Saturday -- in Chermside, Australia; Montpellier, France; and New York City -- and each was accompanied by huge crowds and predictably over-the-top staffers.

  As the videos below the fold demonstrate, MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 14, 2009 11:41 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Apple Store, Australia, Chermside, France, Montpellier, New York City, Openings, Queensland, Upper West Side

• Broader distribution could double iPhone sales in 2010 - Morgan Stanley

  One of the biggest drivers of Apple's (AAPL) growth -- and the company's share price -- over the next two years will be the expiration of the exclusivity deals Steve Jobs cut with carriers during the iPhone's first two years.

  That's the conclusion of a surprisingly bullish report issued Friday by Morgan Stanley's Kathryn Huberty, long considered a leading Apple bear.

  "We expect Apple to broaden iPhone carrier distribution over the next MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 2, 2009 6:12 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, AT&T, China, France, Kathryn Huberty, Verizon