The latest report from comScore shows Apple continuing to shine as the top smartphone manufacturer in the United States owning 40.7% of smartphone subscribers at the end of the August quarter. This marks a 1.5 point jump from the three months leading up to the end of the May quarter when Apple owned 39.2% of the same space.
It’s worth noting this increase took place during the months without an announcement of new hardware as the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c were both announced and made available during September, although discounted hardware with third-party retailers could have been a factor closer to August. We will likely see Apple continue to increase its dominance as the top US smartphone OEM during the quarter ending in December with the flux of new iPhones hitting the market during the fall.
As for the competition, Samsung again came in at second place wrapping up the quarter ending in August with 24.3% of the US smartphone market, a similar increase of 1.3 points from 23% during the previous quarter. HTC and Motorola experienced losses of 1.3 points and 0.9 points, respectively, while LG maintained its fifth place position unchanged.
Meanwhile, iOS experienced a 1.5 point gain in US smartphone platform presence, increasing its share from 39.2% to 40.7% from the quarter ending in May to the quarter ending in August.
While Apple leads BlackBerry, Microsoft, and Symbian (who each have single digit shares) in platform presence, Android still leads this space with 51.6% execution. Notably, that’s 0.8 points less than the previous quarter with Apple’s 1.5 point gain and Microsoft’s 0.2 point gain. With Apple releasing not one but two new iPhones during September, it will be interesting to watch this space to see just how the slight diversification in Apple’s product line will effect platform ownership considering Android’s success in this space has long been do to saturating the different corners of the market.
