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Apple leads off 2014 as top smartphone maker in U.S.: ComScore

Looking forward for 2014, the mobile OS space might be even more difficult to predict this year.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor
gold-iphone

Following the holiday season and a slew of new smartphone launches during the fall, the dust in the domestic mobile market had time to settle in January.

Android and iOS get to split the top crowns, so to speak, based on the latest figures from ComScore.

The Internet analytics company reported on Friday that Apple led off the year as the top smartphone maker in the United States with 41.6 percent of the market share, up one point from three months prior.

Samsung trailed in second place with 26.7 percent of the pie, a slightly larger uptick at 1.3 percent more than in October 2013.

The Korean tech giant might also be seeing a boost in the next month or two following the anticipated unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S5, among several other gadgets, at Mobile World Congress at the end of February.

LG, Motorola, and HTC rounded out the top five. Motorola is another one to watch over the coming months following the sale of the beleaguered mobile brand from Google to Lenovo for $2.91 billion in January.

But the Android ecosystem still reigns supreme in the operating system space. Google's mobile OS accounted for 51.7 percent of the spectrum, down slightly by 0.5 percent from October.

Apple's iOS went up a point in three months to 41.6 percent of the market, followed by BlackBerry, Microsoft, and Symbian respectively.

Looking forward for 2014, the mobile OS space might be even more difficult to predict this year. Android and Apple will undoubtedly continue to claim the top two spots.

But BlackBerry is at what could be its final make or break point with new leadership and a renewed focus on enterprise. Microsoft's Windows Phone continues (slowly but surely) to gain traction and credit. There are even murmurings about Firefox entering the mix too.

Overall, 159.8 million Americans owned smartphones as of the end of January -- more than 66 percent of the mobile market.

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