In the US, Apple’s dominance as the top smartphone OEM has not only surpassed the 40 percent mark, but it appears set to keep growing. Samsung is gaining as well, but not as fast as its main competitor. Rounding out the top five are HTC, Motorola, and LG, all of which lost share or remained flat.
In the platform space, Google is still first courtesy of Android, Apple is second with iOS, but the latter continues to gain on the former. In fact, Android is back to losing share while iOS is eagerly pushing onwards. 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 145 million Americans owned smartphones (60.8 percent mobile market penetration) in August, up 3 percent since May.
During the quarter, here is how the top five smartphones OEMs fared:
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As you can see, Apple gained 1.5 percentage points in terms of smartphone subscribers (from 39.2 percent to 40.7 percent) while Samsung gained 1.3 percentage points (from 23.0 percent to 24.3 percent). HTC dropped 1.3 points (to 7.4 percent), Motorola fell 0.9 points (to 6.9 percent), and LG stayed flat at 6.7 percent.
In other words, Samsung and Apple gained a combined 2.8 points while the other three lost 2.2 points together, meaning the duo continues to steal share from OEMs not even in the top five, at least in the US. Apple’s gains are probably most impressive, as you’ll remember the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c weren’t yet available in August.
Apple has been increasing its share more than the competition for months now, but Samsung gained more in May, June, and July. It looks like in August, Apple is back on top in the US.
HTC’s woes meanwhile continue as its One smartphone just isn’t cutting it. The latest suggestion is that the company may want to consider an Android and Windows Phone dual-boot option.
Meanwhile, Motorola’s Moto X received decent early reviews, but just like the new iPhones, we have to wait for the numbers to come out. The same goes for LG and its G2, though most people are hungrily awaiting its rumored Nexus 5.
On the software side, Google is still dominating, but Apple continues to make steady gains. After four months of losses in a row, Android regained share in May, and then went flat in June. Then it lost share in July, and once again it fell in August:
Samsung’s gains aren’t enough to offset the losses of other Android makers, causing the mobile operating system to lose 0.8 percentage points (from 52.4 percent to 51.6 percent). Apple meanwhile increased its share by 1.5 percentage points (moving from 39.2 percent to 40.7 percent, which again is identical to the figure for its smartphone share).
BlackBerry was down 0.8 points (from 4.8 percent to 4.0 percent), Microsoft gained 0.2 points (from 3.0 percent to 3.2 percent), and Symbian fell another 0.1 points (from 0.4 percent to 0.3 percent). BlackBerry clearly isn’t making a comeback with its Z10 and Q10 devices, while Microsoft is doing only slightly better.
The Android-iOS duopoly in the US has once again hit a new high (92.3 percent market share). It’s worth noting, however, that the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel show Windows Phone is growing healthily in Europe.
Top Image Credit: Jung Yeon-Je/Getty Images
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