Apple is sitting pretty ahead of its pending announcement next week about the new iPhone, with iOS sales continuing to grow in Australia despite the iPhone 6 being almost a year old, according to new figures from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
The figures show iOS sales have surged 7.9 percentage points for the three months to July 2015, compared to the previous corresponding period.
Meanwhile, Google's Android is continuing to lose market share of smartphone sales in Australia, dropping 10.5 percentage points in the same period.
iOS sales accounted for 34.9 per cent of smartphone sales for the three months to July 2015, while Android sales made up 56.1 per cent, down from 66.6 per cent in July 2014.
Kantar World ComTech Asia strategic insight director Tamsin Timpson said Samsung remained the biggest-selling brand in Australia, slightly ahead of Apple, making up 38 per cent of overall sales.
Samsung strong
"Samsung holds four of the top-10-selling models, with sales of the Galaxy S5 still as buoyant as those for the Galaxy S6 (these models taking the number two and number three spots respectively after the iPhone 6, which still holds the number one position)," she said.
"Within the Android market alone, Samsung continues to hold the lion's share and has increased to 67.7 per cent."
Ms Timpson said the Australian market remained "Apple-centric".
"At the moment Apple is still so strong and growing enormously year on year, and a large part of that is still on the back of the iPhone 6," she said.
"With the new iPhone I don't know if it will be as ground-breaking as the iPhone 6; people aren't holding out as much for it as they were with the iPhone 6. Just before a new launch we expect a surge in sales, too, as prices come down a bit."
However, in bad news for consumers, the price of smartphones has also continued to rise in Australia.
"Price growth remains strong with Samsung and, to a lesser extent, Apple driving the 35 per cent increase in the average price for a smartphone," Ms Timpson said.
"With an overall average price of $158, Asus handsets are selling at prices which are 69 per cent lower than the market average. This entry price is attractive to the late smartphone adopters, who are undoubtedly price-sensitive."
Cheaper options
Despite being significantly cheaper than its iPhone and Galaxy competitors, the Asus handsets still only make up 2.7 per cent of smartphone sales in Australia.
Brands continuing to suffer in Australia include Sony and HTC. Overnight Sony unveiled its Xperia Premium smartphones, which will be the first phone to have a 5.5 inch 4K display.
The phone is likely to be released in November, competing with the new iPhone which will likely be released in late September.
Globally, Android sales continue to dominated the market in Europe and China.
In China, the market dominant brands are Huawei and Xiaomi.
In the United States, iOS sales in the three months to July lost 1.3 percentage points compared to the previous corresponding period, with its share of sales dropping to 30.1 per cent. Android's marketshare increased, but only by 1.7 percentage points to 65.6 per cent.
