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Topic: Smartphones

comScore: Apple's smartphone market share grows to 1 in 3 subscribers

Summary: Samsung maintains its lead in the mobile OEM market despite a small slip, while Apple makes some small but noteworthy gains.

Rachel King

By for Between the Lines |

On the heels of the news that the Samsung Galaxy S3 usurped the iPhone 4S as the top-selling smartphone in the United States, comScore has released figures showing that Apple's slice of the market share was still growing -- at least through July.

Covering the 3-month period between April and July 2012, there were more than 114 million smartphone owners in the U.S. -- a 7 percent increase from April.

More specifically, Google's Android platform continues to lead with more than half of the platform market share at 52.2 percent, but Apple's 2 percentage point increase tipped the scales so that it now accounts for approximately one in three subscribers domestically.

Those two giants were trailed by RIM, Microsoft and Symbian -- all three of which saw their smartphone market share percentages decrease.

zdnet-comscore-july-2012-smartphones

On the mobile OEM front, Samsung continued to lead despite a negative 0.3 point change. Nevertheless, the Korean electronics giant continued to retain 25.6 percent of the market share from the June 2012 report.

Interestingly, the only two mobile OEM makers to see gains in July were Apple in third place and HTC in fifth place. However, the August report could be very different based on earlier news on Tuesday regarding the Galaxy S3.

zdnet-comscore-july-2012-mobile-oem

For reference, comScore surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers for this report. Approximately 234 million Americans age 13 and older were accounted to have used mobile devices by the end of July.

Charts via comScore

Topics: Smartphones, Android, Apple, Mobile OS, Mobility

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11 comments
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  • It's always interesting when you see the army

    broken down to its individual players. Fact is it matters little if the army over all is doing well if the players themselves are not. All in all I'd rather be Apple.

    Pagan jim
    James Quinn
    Reply 2 Votes

    • All-in-all

      I'm glad we have choice.
      wright_is
      Reply Vote

  • LOL

    After once having it all? Gee, what a come back...not! Apple needs to actually catch up with the competition if they want to regain market share. All they do is try to block the consumer from having a choice.

    Apple sucks.
    timspublic1@...
    Reply 9 Votes

    • Um Apple never had it all.. In terms of cell phone market share at least.

      They were the highly doubted beginner in a saturated market a few years back. They did well and sales are still doing well. They make most of the mobile monies compared to the rest of the army and unlike some others are very healthy. Market share means little while profit means just about everything. Apple wins.

      Pagan jim
      James Quinn
      Reply 2 Votes

      • Not really

        Market share matters quite a bit to any applications platform. Sure, there's zero need for Apple to be number one. However, it's not going to be comfortable being number three or four, particularly if you're down in single digit market share for long.

        Flashy new things inevitably attract a few customers, but what brings in the bulk of them and retains them is the ecosystem. Can you get the apps you want, primarily. Are the devices available in the form-factor you're after. These things ultimately get reflected back as market share, and that back as increased sales -- people like to back winner.

        So it's a virtuous circle for your plaform after you pass a certain threshold... and a vicious circle when you don't. The stink of failure alone can taint a brand. Microsoft, RIM, and Nokia have each fallen from a commanding lead to a fractional share of the market. Both Microsoft/Nokia and RIM are planning to come roaring back in the next 12 months... pretty much all at the same time, since Windows 7 Phone was a failure (eg, not enough sales to keep Nokia from losing money, even with Microsoft's $250 billion cash per quarter added in -- that's a very clear definition of failure vs. success in Nokia's case). And looking at those charts, there's just not that much share left to take before you have to get Android and iOS users to switch to your platform. Neither of these guys has even addressed that yet.
        Hazydave
        Reply Vote

    • When Apple first released the iPhone

      their goal was 3%. And people thought they were insane. What I think is interesting is that Samsung has 6% more of the market than Apple, yet Apple makes gobs more money than Samsung.
      baggins_z
      Reply 2 Votes

    • It's Microsoft that seeks to eliminate choice

      At least get your Monopolists right. Microsoft sought banns on Motorola, Samsung, LG, etc. Also of note the Patents are so weak, Microsoft will not name them, possibly out of fear the actual patent owner will come forth ad challenge Microsoft's claims.
      Troll Hunter J
      Reply 3 Votes

  • You didnt see second chart do you?

    May be you should...
    AmediaN
    Reply Vote

  • On the subject

    Looks like articles coming through as a fool's hope for Apple's survival and stocks... With iPhone 5 by the door, these to be expected. However, only previous owners of iPhones will buy it so will not be a "sudden" jumps on these scenerios.
    AmediaN
    Reply Vote

  • Bet you didnt know this about penny stock

    The editors of Penny Stock Detectives believe low-priced stocks, when researched properly

    http://greatestviews.com/penny-stock-egg-head-is-it-a-scam/
    Kelly Anna Kelly
    Reply Vote

  • Subscribers and dollars

    Would be interesting to see the share of market revenues. An Iphone can cost up to 3 times more than an Android phone. How long can Apple continue with having just one phone out there? Especially with the growing competition in the high-end market.
    justanumber
    Reply Vote
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