Mobile device market develops very fast. Today Apple products, which were always sold quite well, have fierce competition. According to market analysts, cheaper smartphones on Android, like ZTE, Huawei, Xiaomi, Meizu, and so on, are becoming more popular among users than top devices, like iPhones.
Plus, paying less money doesn’t mean that you get less functionality. Usually inexpensive smartphones cost less because body frame and protective screen are made of cheaper materials, not because software has been changed. Software in such smartphones is changed very rarely – you have to substitute the whole line-up which isn’t beneficial for the company.
Apple is slowly losing its status of a mobile trend setter. It seems like engineers in Cupertino stumbled onto some kind of obstacle and they can’t produce new ideas for their devices at the same rate as before. iOS market share increased only a little bit, whereas the market share of Android is rising at a much quicker rate.
This directly affects the mobile phone accessories market. Here the stagnation in Apple doesn’t seem to disappoint manufacturers.
In 2015-2016 third party brands almost completely stopped producing accessories (especially cases) for Samsung, Sony, etc. and focused only on iPhone 6 and iPhone 7. Cases for Apple smartphones are usually made of better materials and, as a result, they look better and serve for a longer time. Plus, they are custom made.
Cases for other smartphones (mostly on Android) are usually universal and simple (regular plastic cases).
The main reason for that is a huge amount of models from different brands producing smartphones on Android. New models are made too often and investments into the product which will soon become old are unjustifiable and unprofitable.
Anyway, only time will show which platform will dominate the market and in which direction the accessory market will go.
