Apple takes nearly one-third U.S. smartphone marketshare, tops Samsung

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
A new report released on Wednesday shows Apple and Samsung have all but run away with the U.S. smartphone market and despite having only three models up for offer, the iPhone has generated the most growth during the second quarter of 2012.

According to data from market research firm NPD, as of the end of quarter two Apple's iPhone garnered nearly one third of the U.S. smartphone market with 31 percent, while Samsung managed 24 percent over the same period.

The firm notes combined smartphone sales for Apple and Samsung rose 43 percent year-to-year while sales for other brands fell 16 percent.

Following the Galaxy maker in brand market share was HTC with 15 percent and Motorola with 12 percent. Rounding out the top five was LG's 6 percent marketshare.

Total smartphone unit sales rose nine percent in the second quarter, with all growth driven by pre-paid smartphone sales which rose 91 percent year-over-year. Post-paid growth, however, was stagnant.

?Prepaid smartphones are no longer just cheap, also-ran options, focused on older and less capable phones,? said vice president of industry analysis at NPD Stephen Baker. ?As the smartphone market matures, and as growth slows, carriers have been smart to aggressively market some of their best current smartphones on a pre-paid basis to a new set of customers, in order to keep sales humming along.?

NPD Phone Track
Source: NPD


The firm's Mobile Phone Track service also found the income level of the average smartphone buyer is slowly shifting down from middle and upper-income households. At the end of the second quarter, 33 percent of smartphone buyers had an average household income of less than $35,000 per year, compared to 24 percent in 2011.

The downward penetration is likely to be a result of entry-level handsets like Apple's iPhone 3GS and the carry-over iPhone 4.

"By concentrating on their best, flagship devices, while at the same time supplementing their volumes with lower priced alternatives, both Apple and Samsung are extending their lead over the other smartphone makers,? Baker said.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 68
    boredumbboredumb Posts: 1,418member


    Apple takes over one-third U.S. smartphone marketshare


     


    I bet before you know it, Samsung will try to copy this, too...

  • Reply 2 of 68
    quadra 610quadra 610 Posts: 6,757member


    Apple used the same strategy in the 80s and lost. No way they can continue to be successful.


     


     


    /s

  • Reply 3 of 68
    <2cents<2cents Posts: 10member

    Quote:

    Apple's iPhone garnered over one third of the U.S. smartphone market with 31 percent


    When did 31 percent become greater than 1/3?

  • Reply 4 of 68
    poochpooch Posts: 768member
    interesting stories:

    appleinsider reports "Apple takes over one-third U.S. smartphone marketshare, tops Samsung "

    while pretty much at the same time, cnn runs a story about an IDC report where "[URL=http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/08/technology/smartphone-market-share/index.html?hpt=hp_t3]Android races past Apple in smartphone market share[/URL]" ... stating "More specifically, IDC pegged Android's gain "directly" to Samsung, "
  • Reply 5 of 68
    Wow, great news.
  • Reply 6 of 68
    gwmacgwmac Posts: 1,807member


    CNN ran quit a different story today. Android Races Past Apple in Smartphone Market which in a nutshell said "Google's Android surged to a whopping 68% share of the global smartphone market last quarter. That's four times more than the 17% market share held by Apple , according to a Wednesday report from research firm IDC."


     


    I don't really care one way or the other. Apple is certainly making a ton of money and dominating the most important market which is profits. As long as Apple can make tons of money and say around 15% globally and around 33% of the U.S. market they are fine. Most of the overseas smartphones are used more like dumb flip phones anyways and they probably don't buy any apps or even surf that much on them. 


     


    I used to think it is a two horse race with Android and iOS. I was right about two horses, but it looks more and more like it is Apple and Samsung since Samsung will end up driving a lot of these smaller Android companies out of the race all together. They are already at 44% of the total Android market which is more than the next seven companies combined and show no signs of slowing down. I would hate to be HTC, Motorola, Nokia, RIM, or LG right now having to compete against Apple and Samsung for sales. 

  • Reply 7 of 68
    69ergoo69ergoo Posts: 42member


    Hey, Korean media will be very, very sad to hear this news. They have been really busy kissing Samsung's ass the whole year.


    They are going to have hard time swallowing this. I can't wait to see how they are going to report after Samsung loses the trial in California. :)

  • Reply 8 of 68
    vaelianvaelian Posts: 446member

    Quote:


    When did 31 percent become greater than 1/3?



     


    Those 31% represent year-over-year sales growth, not share.  They are essentially stating that Apple sold 31% more phones in the previous quarter than they did in the same quarter last year while Samsung sold 24% more phones in the same time period.  It's not very well written, though.

  • Reply 9 of 68
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    <2cents wrote: »
    When did 31 percent become greater than 1/3?

    Since all that "New Math" crap started lol.
  • Reply 10 of 68

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    Apple's iPhone garnered over one third of the U.S. smartphone market with 31 percent


     


    lol wut

  • Reply 11 of 68
    daylove22daylove22 Posts: 215member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by gwmac View Post


    CNN ran quit a different story today. Android Races Past Apple in Smartphone Market which in a nutshell said "Google's Android surged to a whopping 68% share of the global smartphone market last quarter. That's four times more than the 17% market share held by Apple , according to a Wednesday report from research firm IDC."


     


    I don't really care one way or the other. Apple is certainly making a ton of money and dominating the most important market which is profits. As long as Apple can make tons of money and say around 15% globally and around 33% of the U.S. market they are fine. Most of the overseas smartphones are used more like dumb flip phones anyways and they probably don't buy any apps or even surf that much on them. 


     


    I used to think it is a two horse race with Android and iOS. I was right about two horses, but it looks more and more like it is Apple and Samsung since Samsung will end up driving a lot of these smaller Android companies out of the race all together. They are already at 44% of the total Android market which is more than the next seven companies combined and show no signs of slowing down. I would hate to be HTC, Motorola, Nokia, RIM, or LG right now having to compete against Apple and Samsung for sales. 



    As a consumer why should I care if Apple or another company makes the most profit? I only care to buy a good device that serve my needs. Please save us with the overseas comment that they used dumb phone..for your info overseas telecommunication systems and networks are several years ahead of the US.

  • Reply 12 of 68
    Europe japan and korea all fit your story. India, and china swamp this on the low end. I don't think he is being as biggoted as it sounds. There are a lot of low end smart phones. Even in the USA the prepaid low end market is growing fastest.
  • Reply 13 of 68
    agramonteagramonte Posts: 345member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by 69ergoo View Post


    Hey, Korean media will be very, very sad to hear this news. They have been really busy kissing Samsung's ass the whole year.


    They are going to have hard time swallowing this. I can't wait to see how they are going to report after Samsung loses the trial in California. :)



     


    I guess you did not read CNNMoney today - The IDC numbers are out - they are not sad. 

  • Reply 14 of 68
    daharderdaharder Posts: 1,580member
    lol wut

    That's 'Apple RDF Math'... the 'real world' tells a much different/more truthful story.
  • Reply 15 of 68
    tooltalktooltalk Posts: 766member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by 69ergoo View Post


    Hey, Korean media will be very, very sad to hear this news. They have been really busy kissing Samsung's ass the whole year.


    They are going to have hard time swallowing this. I can't wait to see how they are going to report after Samsung loses the trial in California. :)



     


     


    Why?    According to Nielsen, Samsung had only 8% of the US smartphone market in Q2 2011; now it's 24%.  Yes, that's 300% gain.   Apple's share went from 28% to 31%; 10+% gain.   


     


     


    <img src="http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/june-2011-smartphone-share.png">

  • Reply 16 of 68

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by gwmac View Post

    Most of the overseas smartphones are used more like dumb flip phones anyways and they probably don't buy any apps or even surf that much on them. 


     



     


    Even though I own 2 Macs and 2 iPads, to me the iPhone is a low end mass market smartphone: 1/2 GB RAM, tiny screen, no AMOLED, no NFC, no SD, no LTE, no USB storage, small non-removable battery, assembled in sweat shops...


     


    Million dollar marketing hype though.

  • Reply 17 of 68

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post


    Apple used the same strategy in the 80s and lost. No way they can continue to be successful.


     


     


    /s



    Oh, sacasm is on.


     


    BUT, were you there when Scully was at the helm of Apple and Jobs went soul searching? How it went during 80's and early 90's?

  • Reply 18 of 68
    andysolandysol Posts: 2,506member
    mercury99 wrote: »
    Even though I own 2 Macs and 2 iPads, to me the iPhone is a low end mass market smartphone: 1/2 GB RAM, tiny screen, no AMOLED, no NFC, no SD, no LTE, no USB storage, small non-removable battery, assembled in sweat shops...

    Million dollar marketing hype though.

    1/2 gb ram? It is still the fastest running smartphone on geek bench- better than the S3. So what if it had 2gb, but was slower- would that be better?

    Tiny screen- ok. This will likely change.
    NFC- what does that help with currently? Google wallet sucks. It's actually awful.
    Sd/USB storage- what phone had that at all anymore?
    Small non-removable battery- again what phone has that now? And when it runs 8 hours (as opposed to the competition's 4 hrs)- they need an extra battery.

    Lte will also be coming- but didn't want to be introduced until infrastructure and battery friendly chips were out (which just came out)- hence the 8 hr battery life behind such a "tiny" screen.

    Apple will bring stuff out and introduce it to their phone when it's going to be best received. I think the bigger screen could have come last year- but that's it. Everything else could've and shouldve waited. Companies like google who rush google wallet out can claim "they had it first"- but it sucks. The technology wasn't there- the vendors werent on board- the programming was clunky- the security measures weren't in place- etc. that's why it wasn't well received. I'd love for apple to bring it out with this next iPhone- but if they decide to wait until 2013, so they can add fingerprint technology as a security feature while using the app- fine by me- that's smart.

    Being first isn't always best- we've witnessed that. Being finished and polished is best.
  • Reply 19 of 68

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mercury99 View Post


     


    Even though I own 2 Macs and 2 iPads, to me the iPhone is a low end mass market smartphone: 1/2 GB RAM, tiny screen, no AMOLED, no NFC, no SD, no LTE, no USB storage, small non-removable battery, assembled in sweat shops...


     


    Million dollar marketing hype though.



    They would do better if Visa and astercard don't get cold feet and turn down any credit card numbers that isn't from the U.S. That's why app store never take off around here.


     


    Thai carriers now converted their international scratch cards to use as payemnts for their own app stores, not iTune Store mind you. Would Apple Singapore say yes on Cupertino's behalf and let carriers clear the transaction for App Sotre for them?

  • Reply 20 of 68

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Macnewsjunkie View Post



    Europe japan and korea all fit your story. India, and china swamp this on the low end. I don't think he is being as biggoted as it sounds. There are a lot of low end smart phones. Even in the USA the prepaid low end market is growing fastest.


    Has the Recession force U.S. customers' habit to trade down too?

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