Kantar: Android took 52% of US smartphone sales in April, but iOS and Windows Phone are growing faster
In the US, Android grabbed 51.7 percent of the smartphone sales market through the three-month period ending April 2013, while Apple took second place with 41.4 percent, and Microsoft settled for third at 5.6 percent.
Context & Ripple Effects
Kantar's April numbers extend a run that started with its Q1 global read of 64% Android share in late April, where Windows Phone was already flagged for modest gains. What is new here is the US frame: Android holds the volume lead at 51.7%, but both iOS and Windows Phone are growing faster off their respective bases.
The story traveled unusually wide for a market-share datapoint — VentureBeat, BGR, Marketing Land and Microsoft's own Windows Blog all carried the Kantar release — because each side gets a headline it likes. It also caps a two-year arc since comScore put Android at 40% US share in August 2011, showing the platform still adding share even against an expanding total market.
First-order effects
- Microsoft has its first US datapoint worth syndicating on its own blog — 5.6% share with faster growth than Android gives Windows Phone a credible pitch to carriers deciding summer shelf space.
- Apple's faster US growth rate alongside a 41.4% share undercuts the volume-share narrative Google uses globally, giving both camps ammunition in developer-recruitment conversations.
Second-order effects
- Carriers and OEMs face a split signal: Samsung rides Android's 51.7% volume while Apple's growth rate pressures them to keep iPhone inventory and promotions prominent despite lower unit flexibility.
- Windows Phone's above-zero growth rate raises the stakes on Microsoft's app-gap problem — developers who dismissed a sub-2% platform must now weigh a visibly moving one.
Third-order effects
- If iOS and Android keep compounding share between them, the US market consolidates into an effective duopoly that squeezes any third platform — Windows Phone's growth becomes a race to reach sustainable scale before the window narrows.
- Share metrics themselves become contested terrain: Kantar's sales-based methodology versus installed-base trackers means each player will increasingly cite whichever measure flatters it, raising the bar for neutral measurement firms.
The trend: The smartphone market is settling into a two-platform structure where headline share belongs to Android but growth rates — and the narrative war over them — belong to iOS and Windows Phone.