Kantar: Samsung's Galaxy S7 outsold Apple's iPhone 6s in the US between March and May 2016
emerging markets like India & ambitious Chinese rivals are the real focus now http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second straight year Kantar has caught the same seasonal swing: in 2015, the Galaxy S6 powered an Android gain of 2.8 points to 64.9% in the US over the identical March-to-May window. The May 2016 read already flagged the S7 as selling well stateside, part of a broader quarter where Android grew 7.3% YoY in the US and 7.1% across the top five European markets.
The reason this snapshot matters is what came after it: by December, iPhone share had jumped 7 points to 40.5% in the US, a reversal Kantar tied to Samsung's Galaxy Note7 troubles. The S7's spring win was real but short-lived, and the description's framing — India and ambitious Chinese rivals as the real focus — points to where neither vendor's US fortunes decide the market.
First-order effects
- Samsung enters the fall 2016 upgrade season holding US sales momentum over Apple, whose iPhone 6s was deep into its cycle while the S7 was fresh.
Second-order effects
- Apple's counter is launch timing rather than pricing — the pattern from the iPhone 6 era, when Apple's share rose in nearly all markets on the back of a new flagship, shows each vendor's gains arrive with its own hardware refresh.
Third-order effects
- The Note7 collapse that handed Apple a 40.5% US share by December confirms the structural lesson: single-flagship dependence makes Samsung's US position hostage to one product's reliability, pushing its strategic weight toward volume markets like India where the description says the real contest now sits.
The trend: US smartphone share increasingly oscillates with each vendor's flagship launch and stumble cadence, while the durable growth battle migrates to India and China.