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Topic: Mobility

Samsung, Android retain U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

Summary: Samsung and Google's Android retains the lead as the top U.S. mobile market combination. But the iPhone 4S launch barely had an impact on marketshare statistics.

Zack Whittaker

By for Between the Lines |

comScore today released the latest key trends in the U.S. mobile phone market during the three months ending in October.

Once again, Samsung retained the top spot amongst U.S. subscribers, retaining its 25.5 percent share; showing no growth nor decline on past results.

(Source: comScore)

Out of the 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers surveyed, it was found that from the three-month average period up to the end of October, 234 million Americans aged 13 and older used a mobile device.

comScore said that just under a third of all U.S. phone owners had a smartphone, up by 10 percent from the preceding three-month period; showing that smartphones use is still on the rise.

This should come as no surprise, as rival analytics firm Nielsen said this week that while Google and Apple retain the top spot for phones and mobile operating system users, the BlackBerry maker, Microsoft and Nokia have an uphill battle to contend with.

As expected, considering Samsung uses Android in the vast majority of its smartphones, the Google-developed operating system came top as well, reaching 41.9 percent of the U.S. market.

(Source: comScore)

While it was expected for a significant growth from the Apple iPhone, considering its exceptional sales in the first weekend of its release, Apple's share grew only 1.3 percent to just shy of 11 percent in the three month period.

Having said that, out of the top manufacturers, only Apple was able to show any growth whatsoever, with LG declining by 0.3 percent, Motorola losing out on 0.5 percent, and the BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion losing 1 percent.

Google stormed ahead with a 3.4 percent lead growth over Apple's in the three months selected, while Research in Motion struggled the most, with more subscribers turning away from the BlackBerry smartphone in favour of alternatives.

Over the course of the end of July to October three month period, there was an increase in users downloading applications for their smartphones, followed by a greater use of the mobile browser.

Related:

Topics: Mobility, Hardware, Samsung, Telcos

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22 comments
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  • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

    Not bad for iPhone 4S, considering it was selling only half of the month<br>Also, you made incorrect assertion in one of your previous posts, saying that Samsung was #1 smartphone producer in USA in Q3. Data for that quarter does not support that: Samsung found their the biggest selling smartphone on 5th position in Q3 according to NPD and overall had only about 11% of smartphone penetration share (and that includes other than Android OS devices, too; HTC had 15% only on Android) according to Nielsen.<br><br>And even in this post in the title you added Samsung's cumulative phone sales to Android market share, though one has little to do with another (about 3/4 of Samsung's phones that the company sells are regular phones which do not run Android, according to Q2 data, which was the last time Samsung published sales figures for smartphones), nor it has anything to do with sales of iPhones, which are smartphones.<br><br>Failure in quality of reporting, alas.
    dderss
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

      @dderss Would you like some Cheese with that whine?
      slickjim
      Reply Vote

      • How about a root kit named Carrier IQ

        That you can't turn off nor remove... Nice feature?!
        @Peter Perry
        GoPower
        Reply Vote

      • Poor choice my friend.... A good counter would have been

        @Peter Perry ...to show his statements incorrect. Since you did not try this I assume you have nothing and he is correct:)

        Pagan jim
        James Quinn
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

        @Gopower I realize that ZDNet didn't post it but Google came Out yesterday stating it is not in Android either!
        slickjim
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

        @James Quinn he article how's his statements incorrect!
        slickjim
        Reply Vote

      • You are using (he) article to show he is incorrect?

        @Peter Perry ... Pardon me but haven't you been on record disputing blog articles on ZDnet on numerous occasions? Is this just a case of "if i like the sounds of it it MUST be true" on your part? <br><br>Pagan jim
        James Quinn
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

      @dderss When will the iSheep get it that Android is blowing Apple to smithereens?? At the end of July the difference between Android and iOS was 14.8%... fast forward 3 months at the end of October (including the 4 million iPhone4Sux launch and 2 more weeks of pent up demand for a junk garbage 2 years old 3G phone), and the difference has skyrocketed between Android and Apple to 18.2%... GET IT yet??? 14.8% Aug 1st, 18.2% Nov 1st...
      larryvand
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

    Where is Bruizer? He is supposed to be here telling me how wrong I was regarding this 4s Sale being as good as the 4 was!!!

    I guess I was right huh Bluizer?
    slickjim
    Reply Vote

    • So, you, as well as Zack, do not know that iPhone 4S was on sale for only

      @Peter Perry: ... half of the month and sales in the first half obviously mostly stalled in wait for new device?
      dderss
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

        @dderss No they are not, I knew 4 people that wanted them and I found them for them that day, nice try on the stalled sales! Verizon tells you straight up that it will ship in 1 day if you buy the white one so sales are not stalled! Nice try though!
        slickjim
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

        @dderss You guys were screaming OMG OMG for the record 4m sales on launch. What? Did iPhone4Sux sales nosedive the other 2 weeks??? Considering the pent up demand, especially since the iPhone4Sux was 16+ months late, you should have sold more than a months product in the first 2 weeks... unless, sales of the battery draining slow as molasses 3G iPhone4Sux are not as good as isheep are expecting...
        larryvand
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

      @Peter Perry
      Also we don't have HTC figures on hand to compare the table only shows Samsung, LG, Motorola, RIM and Apple. And AFAIK, HTC is one of the leading Android vendors.
      Ram U
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

        @Rama.NET There's no doubt Android is still growing like Crazy and it's likely to continue into the foreseeable future.
        slickjim
        Reply Vote

      • Actually the biggest Android vendor in USA: 15% of base versus 10% Samsung'

        @Rama.NET
        dderss
        Reply Vote

    • Actually, you are dead wrong as always.

      @Peter Perry

      The iPhone 4S was available for a few weeks in this survey and the iPhone showed market GAINS not losses over the 3 month period.

      Of course, your blind hatred of all things Apple will make you think that because the iPhone did not gain as much share as all of Android vendors combined, Apple somehow "lost".

      I bet your inability to objectively look at data extends to all areas like science as well.
      Bruizer
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

    No offence, but it seems lot of US smart phone buyers are not that smart. Buying an android/google product is a ticket to loosing privacy and infected with virus,malware,rootkit, etc, etc, and poor battery life, messy interface, OS maintenance...etc..etc. The only plus point of android samsung phones are its beautiful display.

    A lot of smart phone buyers are falling into the trap of 'specs' and forgetting about functionality and usablility. What is the point of buying a smartphone if you are not using it smartly?
    owlnet
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

      @owlnet
      A5 proccessor, 5mbp camera..
      Zc456
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

      @owlnet
      Sure... it's the users fault. They want to buy the wrong products. They are just not as "smartly" as you are.

      And talking about specs... the 4S was purely a spec bump.
      Theli
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Samsung, Android retains U.S. lead; iPhone 4S launch barely dented market

    Dimwits who write for "Microsoft Net": how many korean models of the same phone are there? 500? Wake the f up.
    Black Barack
    Reply Vote
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