comScore: Apple takes 40.6% share as top US smartphone maker, Samsung hits 25.4%; Android stops losing share
In the US, Apple's dominance as the top smartphone OEM appears to have peaked at just above the 40 percent mark. In the last three months, Samsung gained share faster than its main competitor …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the latest reading in a quarterly series The Next Web has tracked off comScore data: back in November 2012 Samsung led all US mobile devices while Apple passed LG for second place, and by March 2013 Apple had opened 2013 as the top US smartphone maker even as Android's share fell for the first time. Today's numbers extend that arc — Apple holds the lead at 40.6% but appears to be plateauing just above 40%, while Samsung, at 25.4%, is gaining faster than its rival.
The notable wrinkle is Android itself: after the first-ever decline reported in March, comScore now shows the platform's US share stabilizing rather than sliding further. The story also traveled unusually widely for a monthly tracker — picked up same-day by MacRumors, ZDNet, GeekWire, BGR, AppleInsider and others — reflecting how closely the Apple-vs-Samsung gap is being watched heading into the holiday quarter.
First-order effects
- Samsung is closing the gap on Apple faster than Apple is growing, turning what looked like a stable Apple lead in the March 2013 comScore data into a tightening two-vendor race in the US.
- Android's pause in share losses removes the bear case that was building since March, when comScore recorded the platform's first-ever US decline.
Second-order effects
- With Apple and Samsung together holding roughly two-thirds of the US smartphone market per comScore, mid-tier Android vendors are competing for a shrinking remainder and face pressure to differentiate on price or exit segments the duopoly covers.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the US market consolidates structurally around an Apple-Samsung duopoly, making quarterly comScore readings less about platform share and more a running scoreboard of a two-company contest — with carrier subsidies and holiday upgrade cycles as the swing factors.
The trend: US smartphone share tracking is shifting from a story about Android versus iOS to a running head-to-head between Apple and Samsung, with Android's aggregate number stabilizing as a backdrop.