Apple gains market share with bigger iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus as Samsung and Android suffer

Bigger iPhones have translated into bigger market share for Apple at the expense of Android and Samsung.

According to the latest report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Apple’s iOS grew its market share in every country surveyed for the three months ending November 2014 with the exception of Japan, where the iPhone saw a surge in sales last year.

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“While remaining the dominant global OS, Android’s market share dropped in most European markets and in the U.S., where the decline was the first since September 2013,” Carolina Milanesi, Kantar’s chief of research, said in a statement.

In Europe’s biggest markets (Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy), Android had a market share of 69.9 percent, down 3.2 percent from the same period a year ago. Apple climbed from 17.5 percent to 23.8 percent.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. Apple climbed to 47.4 percent of sales, up 4.3 percentage points from the same three months in 2013. Android fell 2 percentage points to 48.4 percent, just a hair above Apple’s iOS devices.

While the report focused on mobile operating system market share numbers, Kantar says Apple’s gains were driven by the bigger iPhones last year. And given that the period doesn’t include December, the firm expects Apple’s share could climb even higher.

Kantar says these gains came at a cost to Samsung, which saw market share losses in Europe and the U.S., continuing a tough year for the South Korean electronics giant.

Apple also saw iOS market share in China rise from 17 percent to 18.1 percent last quarter. Android also grew in China, from 78.6 percent to 80.4 percent, thanks to the tremendous momentum behind upstart Android smartphone maker Xiaomi.