Samsung leads the U.S. smartphone market with Apple close on its heels

In spite of the recent spat and the expensive $1.05 billion court case that went in Apple’s favor in the U.S., the iPhone maker is still trailing behind Samsung in mobile sales in the country.
Following behind these two behemoths are the others like HTC, Motorola, and LG who are all lagging with decreased sales. There is a similar situation in the platform area as well. Android is the most preferred operating system with iOS reluctantly settling for the second place.
Others like Symbian and Windows Phone are still poor contenders struggling to maintain their positions, though losing steadily.

Smartphones now make up for 53% of the handsets used by mobile phone users in the U.S. That is a gain of 6% from August 2012 and represents 123.3 million Americans who use a smartphone. Data culled by comScore from over 30,000 mobile users shows that Samsung still lead the pack last quarter with an impressive 26.9% share indicating an increase of 1.2% since August.
Although Apple’s increase in percentage is higher by 1.4 points, the market share is way behind at just 18.5% as compared to Samsung. LG is breathing down Apple’s neck with a 17.5%, which is a decrease of 0.7% since August. Motorola and HTC still show a declining trend with 10.4 and 5.9% market share respectively.  This clearly shows that Samsung and Apple seem to have the upper hand and intend on maintaining their duopoly. Apple’s iPhone 5 is still helping it inch ahead of LG and maintain that position firmly, with Google’s Nexus 4 assisting LG gain ground steadily.

In the smartphone platform market share, Google may not have made its mark with the Nexus 4, but it seems to have made up on the software front. It leads the top 5 with a lion’s share of 53.7% of total smartphone subscribers, though the increase is just 1.1%. Apple could manage the second position with its share at 35% of the market with an increase of 0.7% since August. RIM, Microsoft, and Symbian were trailing behind with negligible shares of 7.3%, 3%, and 0.5% respectively and declining steadily.
Although Apple is offering stiff competition to Samsung, Android is still leading the pack and keeping well ahead of iOS. No other OEM seems to be anywhere close to the top 5 slot with existing players finding it difficult to maintain the pace.
How long do you think there will be significant market consolidation in the space leaving only Samsung and Apple to battle it out?

comScore Reports November 2012 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share
Samsung and Apple Continue to Seize Share in OEM Market
RESTON, VA, January 3, 2013– comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending November 2012. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 26.9 percent market share. Google Android continued to lead among smartphone platforms, accounting for 53.7 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Apple secured 35 percent.
OEM Market Share
For the three-month average period ending in November, device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 26.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 1.2 percentage points). Apple ranked second with 18.5 percent market share (up 1.4 percentage points), followed by LG with 17.5 percent share, Motorola with 10.4 percent and HTC with 5.9 percent.

Top Mobile OEMs 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2012 vs. 3 Month Ending Aug. 2012 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone) Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
	Aug-12	Nov-12	Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Samsung	25.7%	26.9%	1.2
Apple	17.1%	18.5%	1.4
LG	18.2%	17.5%	-0.7
Motorola	11.2%	10.4%	-0.8
HTC	6.3%	5.9%	-0.4

Smartphone Platform Market Share
123.3 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (53 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in November, up 6 percent since August. Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 53.7 percent market share (up 1.1 percentage points), while Apple’s share increased 0.7 percentage points to 35 percent. RIM ranked third with 7.3 percent share, followed by Microsoft (3 percent) and Symbian (0.5 percent).

Top Smartphone Platforms 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Aug. 2012 Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
	Aug-12	Nov-12	Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Google	52.6%	53.7%	1.1
Apple	34.3%	35.0%	0.7
RIM	8.3%	7.3%	-1.0
Microsoft	3.6%	3.0%	-0.6
Symbian	0.7%	0.5%	-0.2

Mobile Content Usage
In November, 75.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device (up 0.3 percentage points). Downloaded applications were used by 54.2 percent of subscribers (up 0.8 percentage points), while browsers were used by 52.1 percent (up 0.1 percentage points). Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 0.9 percentage points to 39.2 percent of mobile subscribers. Game-playing was done by 33.7 percent of the mobile audience, while 28.7 percent listened to music on their phones (up 0.4 percentage points).

Mobile Content Usage 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Aug. 2012 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone) Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
	Aug-12	Nov-12	Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Sent text message to another phone	75.6%	75.9%	0.3
Used downloaded apps	53.4%	54.2%	0.8
Used browser	52.0%	52.1%	0.1
Accessed social networking site or blog	38.3%	39.2%	0.9
Played Games	34.0%	33.7%	-0.3
Listened to music on mobile phone	28.3%	28.7%	0.4

About MobiLens
MobiLens data is derived from an intelligent online survey of a nationally representative sample of mobile subscribers age 13 and older. Data on mobile phone usage refers to a respondent’s primary mobile phone and does not include data related to a respondent’s secondary device.
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

SOURCES Comscore

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