Kantar: Android back on top of US smartphone share in January with Sprint's help
Most US smartphone market share estimates last fall saw Apple retake the lead as it rode a wave of iPhone 5 sales. While there was always a question as to how long that trend would last …
Context & Ripple Effects
Kantar’s November reading had put Apple ahead after the iPhone 5 sales surge, while Android led in other markets. January’s reversal makes the U.S. result look less like a settled platform lead than a contest shaped by carrier-level sales mix.
Sprint’s role matters because it ties a national platform-share shift to a single carrier channel, rather than solely to Apple’s flagship launch cycle.
First-order effects
- Android returns to the lead in Kantar’s U.S. January measurement, while Apple cedes the position it held during the iPhone 5-driven fall period.
- Sprint gains importance as a distribution channel whose handset sales helped determine the reported platform ranking.
Second-order effects
- Apple’s U.S. share defense must contend with carrier sales patterns as well as the momentum from the iPhone 5 launch.
- Kantar’s reversal gives Android handset sellers and their carrier partners a fresh benchmark for competing on U.S. subscriber acquisition.
Third-order effects
- If carrier-specific sales continue to move the national ranking, U.S. smartphone competition will be defined less by a single vendor’s launch window and more by how platforms are distributed across carrier channels.
The trend: U.S. smartphone platform share is becoming a rolling measure of carrier distribution and product-cycle momentum rather than a durable lead for either ecosystem.