Apple gains on Samsung in US

2012-10-03 08:33

Apple has narrowed the gap with Samsung smartphones in the US market. (Samsung)

San Francisco - Apple narrowed the gap with Samsung smartphones in the US market in the months before the release of the iPhone 5, industry tracker comScore reported on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Apple and Android-powered smartphones continued to dominate the US market, where both platforms increased shares evidently at the expense of BlackBerry handsets made by Canada-based Research In Motion.

Samsung remained the top smartphone in the US with an unchanged 25.7% of the market at the end of August while Apple's portion grew to 17.1% as compared to 15% in May, according to comScore.

Motorola and LG both lost just shy of a percent of market share to finish August with 11.2% and 18.2% of the US market respectively.

The number of smartphone owners in the US grew 6% to 116.5 million in the three-month period that ended with the start of September.

Google-backed Android software remained the most popular smartphone platform with its share of the market growing 1.7% to 52.6%. Apple's bite grew 2.4% to 34.3%, according to comScore.

Apple's portion of the US market is expected to get even bigger given the record-breaking pace of sales of the latest-generation iPhone 5 model released in September.

Apple and Android gains in the quarter came at the expense of BlackBerry handsets made by Canada-based Research In Motion and smartphones powered by Microsoft or Symbian software, according to comScore figures.

RIM's share of the US market slid 3.1% to 8.3% while Microsoft and Symbian shed 0.4% each to drop to 3.6% and 0.7% respectively.

- AFP