iPhone share of US market grows to 42.6% in March quarter
Apple slightly increased its lead as the most popular smartphone maker in the U.S. during the March quarter, while Samsung and Motorola lost ground, according to new data published on Friday.
The iPhone maker's quarterly average share grew from 41.6 percent in the December quarter to 42.6 percent in the first quarter of 2015, according to the latest data from comScore. Samsung fell from 29.7 percent to 28.3 percent, while Motorola dipped from 5.2 percent to a flat 5.
LG and HTC also saw gains, however. The former saw its share rise from 8 percent to 8.4 percent, while HTC inched ahead a tenth of a point to 3.8 percent.
Cumulatively, Android phone vendors maintained dominance of the U.S. in the March quarter with a 52.4 percent share. BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Symbian devices together represented only 5 percent, with Windows leading the pack at 3.3 percent.
comScore also ranked the reach of iOS and Android apps in March among people aged 18 or older. Facebook was the top app at 69.5 percent, while YouTube and Google Play followed behind at 55.9 and 51.5 percent respectively. Apple Maps notably had just a 24.8 percent share, while iTunes Radio and iCloud (the latter actually being a service) were lumped together at 23.9 percent.
The data appears to back claims that Apple Maps and iTunes Radio are unpopular products, despite being integrated into iOS. Google Maps is known to be one of the most downloaded apps on the iOS App Store. Precise iTunes Radio statistics aren't available, meanwhile, but its listenership is believed to be well below multiplatform rivals like Spotify or Pandora.
The iPhone maker's quarterly average share grew from 41.6 percent in the December quarter to 42.6 percent in the first quarter of 2015, according to the latest data from comScore. Samsung fell from 29.7 percent to 28.3 percent, while Motorola dipped from 5.2 percent to a flat 5.
LG and HTC also saw gains, however. The former saw its share rise from 8 percent to 8.4 percent, while HTC inched ahead a tenth of a point to 3.8 percent.
Cumulatively, Android phone vendors maintained dominance of the U.S. in the March quarter with a 52.4 percent share. BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Symbian devices together represented only 5 percent, with Windows leading the pack at 3.3 percent.
comScore also ranked the reach of iOS and Android apps in March among people aged 18 or older. Facebook was the top app at 69.5 percent, while YouTube and Google Play followed behind at 55.9 and 51.5 percent respectively. Apple Maps notably had just a 24.8 percent share, while iTunes Radio and iCloud (the latter actually being a service) were lumped together at 23.9 percent.
The data appears to back claims that Apple Maps and iTunes Radio are unpopular products, despite being integrated into iOS. Google Maps is known to be one of the most downloaded apps on the iOS App Store. Precise iTunes Radio statistics aren't available, meanwhile, but its listenership is believed to be well below multiplatform rivals like Spotify or Pandora.
Comments
Ask Rim that question.
One must know which gods to who one must pray.
Very droll ... lol
We can always count on AppleInsider to NOT have Apple's back. According the the comscore report, Apple Maps made the Top 10 most used apps with 42 million monthly users.
Yes, the ranking is lower than Google Maps, but Apple Maps made the Top Ten! To me, and hopefully many others, this means Apple Maps is not unpopular as AppleInsider claims.
Here is what the USA Today wrote about Apple Maps...
10. (Tie) Apple Maps. Remember when Apple ditched Google Maps on the iPhone two years ago, and critics howled that Apple's Maps were inferior and inaccurate? They've gotten better. And, perhaps helped by its default position on the main page, Apple Maps is used by 42 million users monthly.
UPDATE...
Here is the USA Today piece about Google Maps...
6. Back to Google and the Maps app. Can you imagine getting around without it? Some 64.5 million monthly users navigate their way around town with Google Maps.
In less than TWO years Apple is nipping at the heels of Google. I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the next two years! Great job, Apple!! ????????
52.4% market share of such a massive, lucrative market with HUNDREDS of competing and cheaper products, from a single company, a single product line, which is updated a single time each year, sold only at premium prices, with a huge profit margin is indeed "dominance" no matter which way you slice it.
What? the article said that Android phone vendors maintained dominance - not Apple.
Apple's share of 42.6% at higher margins would seem to be a more dominant position - rivaled only by an amalgamation of products from numerous vendors which all happen to share some amount of codebase with each other.
Which - similar to the Mac vs PC numbers for years - is a snapshot of what is being sold - not a measure of what is being used. How many of those new Android phones were to replace dead or broken or discarded older Android phones - compared to iPhones which might get handed down or resold etc. I have 10 iPhones on my plan at the moment spanning 3G through 6 - such that two original iPhones recently became obsolete and the last remaining 3G will likely as well - and that does not include the couple of iPhones int he 4 series which are currently being used as iPods with out cell service.
Try reading before responding. 52.4% is Android's market share made up from various vendors.
How does it matter who sells the most phones? I mean beyond having a meaning to shareholders.
Well the theory goes that developers will prefer the more popular platform. Apple critics were predicting that iOS would suffer the same fate as in the Windows/Mac era when developers tended to ignore the Mac platform in favor of Windows. To this day your Windows trolls will bloviate about how much more software is available for Windows than OS X (they don’t want to talk about the quality of that software advantage however). So when Android came to dominate the world market in shear numbers of activations iOS should have become toxic for developers. Except that didn’t happen. Not only did it not happen but developers still tend to prefer iOS because they make more money with it. Microsoft is trying desperately to attract developers for its mobile platform by creating tools that allow easy Android and iOS ports to Windows mobile.
Bottom line, the theory of large numbers attracting developers has not proved true in the case of Android vs iOS. In fact the opposite appears to be true.
How does it matter who sells the most phones? I mean beyond having a meaning to shareholders.
For consumers like you and I, market share is only important in how it influences the quality of the ecosystem. That means the availability of support, apps, web site compatibility and accessories.
But a large part of Android phones sold are used essentially as "feature phones", either because those who buy them are not interested in doing more with their phones, and/or because the crippled nature of these low-end phones often sold/given away with a very limited data plan lead to a user experience that does not entice them to use apps and surf the Web with it.
Since those users tend not to use these features, the fact that they their phone runs Android does little to make the platform more attractive for developers and accessory makers. For what matters for consumers (in terms of ecosystem), they shouldn't even be counted in the Android market share.
There's a big difference that people either ignore, or don't consider. Windows was helped immensely but its use in enterprise, and universities/schools. PCs were purchased en masse because people could work from home, and students had to create papers, and projects using a PC because that's what their school used.
A smartphone is a very different animal. It's a much more personal device than a PC, and people choose what they like most instead of choosing what they are forced to.
Your criticism of AppleInsider for not being an automatic Apple fan-boy is lame. That is what makes AppleInsider great.
I use Apple Maps, a lot of people do, but Apple Maps is pre-installed. It will not be a complete success until it does as well as an app customers have to download. Whatever the merits of Apple Maps, a majority of people are still going out of their way to use something else.
Try reading before responding. 52.4% is Android's market share made up from various vendors.
My sincering apologies. I was referring to Apple's marketshare, and even at 42%, my point absolutely still stands. What if a single car manufacturer had that percentage of ALL car sales using only a couple models? Yes, dominance.
I criticized AI's claim the data showed Apple Maps usage was unpopular when in fact the data showed the opposite.
I purposely updated my comment (before you added your comment) with Google data to show monthly Apple Maps usage had grown enough to land the app in the Top Ten used apps.
If reaching the Top Ten means unpopular, I have to get a new dictionary.
Please do not be so quick to criticize when someone actually posts data to back up his comments.
I did also say that it was a nice job by Apple. What Apple has done is extraordinarily impressive, and yes when comparing numbers for each manufacturer, Apple is indeed dominating.
so much for the iPhone 6.