In the US, Apple’s dominance as the top smartphone OEM appears to have peaked at just above the 40 percent mark. In the last three months, Samsung gained share faster than its main competitor, and finally crossed the 25 percent mark. Rounding out the top five are Motorola, HTC, and LG.
In the platform space, Google is still first courtesy of Android, and Apple is second with iOS. Furthermore, the former managed to gain more share than the latter in months. Rounding out the top five are BlackBerry, Microsoft, and Symbian.
The latest data comes from comScore, which regularly surveys over 30,000 mobile subscribers in the US. The market research firm says 149.2 million Americans owned smartphones (62.5 percent mobile market penetration) in October, up 1.3 percent since July.
During the quarter, here is how the top five smartphones OEMs fared:
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As you can see, Apple gained 0.2 percentage points in terms of smartphone subscribers (from 40.4 percent to 40.6 percent) while Samsung gained 1.3 percentage points (from 24.1 percent to 25.4 percent). HTC dropped 1.3 points (to 6.7 percent), Motorola increased its share 0.1 points (to 7.0 percent) and put itself in third, while LG dipped 0.2 points (to 6.6 percent).
The reason we’re saying Apple has peaked is because it was at 40.6 percent and 40.7 percent in comScore’s last two reports. Apple has been increasing its share more than the competition for months, but Samsung has managed to gain more in May, June, July, September, and now October. We would have expected Apple’s gains to be higher, given the arrival of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, but those potential gains have yet to materialize.
Yet the real story is with Motorola. For the first time in months, the company has managed to reverse its downward spiral, though we can’t say right now whether this is just a blip or the start of a trend.
HTC’s woes continue as its One smartphone just isn’t the one. LG is still bleeding, as we wait to see if the Nexus 5 can help it recover.
On the software side, Google is still dominating, even with Apple’s steady gains. Android has lost share most months this year, but October was not one of them:
Google’s mobile operating system gained 0.4 percentage points (from 51.8 percent to 52.2 percent). Apple meanwhile increased its share by 0.2 percentage points (from 40.4 percent to 40.6 percent, just like for its smartphone share).
BlackBerry was down 0.7 points (from 4.3 percent to 3.6 percent), Microsoft gained 0.2 points (from 3.0 percent to 3.2 percent), and Symbian slipped another 0.1 points (to 0.2 percent). BlackBerry clearly isn’t making a comeback with its Z10 and Q10 devices, while Microsoft is slowly on its way into third place.
The Android-iOS duopoly in the US has once again hit a new high (92.8 percent market share). That being said, Windows Phone is beginning to make waves in at least some countries.
Top Image Credit: Jung Yeon-Je/Getty Images
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