iPhone 6 Plus Captures 41% 'Phablet' Sales in the U.S.

Despite having been on the market for just over one month of the three months ending with October 2014, the iPhone 6 Plus has already captured 41% of phablet sales in the U.S., according to Kantar Worldpanel. Notably, phablet sales now represent 10% of total smartphone sales, that's up 2% from the same time last year.

At the point of sale, when asked what drove their choice of smartphones, 58% of those surveyed who bought an iPhone 6 Plus said screen size was the primary reason for choosing their device. Despite the more compact design of the iPhone 6, 60% of consumers who chose it also cited screen size as the primary purchase driver. The ability to connect to a 4G/LTE network was the second most important reason cited by both buyer groups.

The iPhone 6 was the best selling iPhone model with 33% market share, followed by the iPhone 5s with 26% and the iPhone 5c with 18%. The iPhone 6 Plus captured 10% of iOS sales.


On the Android side, the Samsung Galaxy S5 was the top selling model with 22% of sales. The Galaxy S4 came in second with 12%.

Kantar notes that 85% of iPhone buyers were repeat customs and 9% came from Android.

Finally, smartphone sales have now reached 81% of total phone sales and account for 59% of all phones in use in the United States.

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