Apple Makes Gains in U.S. Smartphone Market Share

comScore today released the results of its monthly rolling survey of U.S. mobile phone users for the November-January period, finding that Apple's smartphone marketshare rose 3.5 percentage points between October and January, up to 37.8% of both U.S. smartphone platform and hardware sales.

Samsung was second in hardware makers with 21.4%, up from 19.5% three months earlier. HTC and Motorola both experienced significant drops in market share, while LG gained slightly.

ComScore Reports January 2013 U S Smartphone Subscriber Market Share  comScore Inc
Google's Android was the largest smartphone platform with 52.3% of smartphone platform share, down from 53.6% three months ago. Android, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Symbian all lost share, to the benefit of Apple. As a result, Apple and Google control more than 87 percent of the smartphone market.

ComScore Reports January 2013 U S Smartphone Subscriber Market Share  comScore Inc 1
Notably, comScore's data tracks installed user base rather than new handset sales, making it more reflective of real-world usage but slower to respond to shifting market trends than some other studies.

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 18

Apple Announces iOS 18.2 Launching Today With These New Features

Wednesday December 11, 2024 5:23 am PST by
Apple has announced that iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 will be released today following more than six weeks of beta testing. For the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, the update introduces additional Apple Intelligence features, including Genmoji for creating custom emoji, Image Playground and Image Wand for generating images, and ChatGPT integration for Siri. There is also ...
Generic iOS 18

Apple Seeds Second Release Candidate Versions of iOS 18.2 and More With Genmoji, Image Playground and ChatGPT Integration

Monday December 9, 2024 10:06 am PST by
Apple today seeded the second release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS 15.2 updates to developers and public beta testers for testing purposes, a week after releasing the first RCs. The first iOS 18.2 RC had a build number of 22C150, while the second RC's build number is 22C151. Release candidates represent the final version of beta software that's expected to see a ...
iPhone SE 4 Single Camera Thumb 3

iPhone SE 4 Said to Feature 48MP Rear Lens, 12MP TrueDepth Camera

Monday December 9, 2024 4:48 am PST by
Apple's forthcoming iPhone SE 4 will feature a single 48-megapixel rear camera and a 12-megapixel TrueDepth camera on the front, according to details revealed in a new Korean supply chain report. ET News reports that Korea-based LG Innotek is the main supplier of the front and rear camera modules for the more budget-friendly ~$400 device, which is expected to launch in the first quarter of...
macOS Sequoia Night Feature

Apple Releases macOS Sequoia 15.2 With New Apple Intelligence Features

Wednesday December 11, 2024 10:02 am PST by
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.2, the second update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that was released in September. macOS Sequoia 15.2 comes over a month after the release of macOS Sequoia 15.1. Mac users can download the ‌macOS Sequoia‌ update through the Software Update section of System Settings. macOS Sequoia 15.2 adds Image Playground, an app that lets you create...
m4 mac mini hands on

Cloud-Based M4 and M4 Pro Mac Mini Models Now Available

Wednesday December 11, 2024 7:34 am PST by
Developers now have access to cloud-based M4 and M4 Pro Mac mini units via MacWeb, a Silicon Valley-based provider of cloud services. The company has launched three configurations of the new Mac mini, powered by Apple's M4 and M4 Pro chips. Developers and IT teams can rent these machines for tasks ranging from basic development to advanced artificial intelligence modeling, providing an...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

MacBook Pros With OLED Displays Won't Have a Notch, Roadmap Shows

Monday December 9, 2024 7:36 am PST by
Apple plans to remove the notch from the MacBook Pro in a few years from now, according to a roadmap shared by research firm Omdia. The roadmap shows that 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models released in 2026 will have a hole-punch camera at the top of the display, instead of a notch. It is unclear if there would simply be a pinhole in the display, or if Apple would expand the iPhone's...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 With Genmoji, Image Playground, Siri ChatGPT and More

Wednesday December 11, 2024 10:03 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2, the second major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 updates that came out in September. The new updates come over a month after Apple released iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General >...

Top Rated Comments

econgeek Avatar
154 months ago
I really don't think it's right to call android the largest "smartphone platform", because:

1. Really its "mobile platform" and when you look at the post-PC era, tablets, namely the iPad Market is a big chunk of mobil devices, and when you include these numbers- the iPad has really dominant share making iOS the dominant platform. Looking just at "smartphones" is selective reporting to try and exclude the market where Apple has had the most success, skewing the numbers in favor of android.

2. Android is hugely fragmented. iOS devices are mostly all running the latest iOS software and even ones that aren't can all run apps without modification. This is not true on android where covering %80 of the market requires changing your app to support 167!!! different devices.

3. I don't consider android to really be a platform, simply because it is so compromised. As a ripoff of iOS they had to rush it to market and in doing so compromised a lot of functionality.

4. Android is primarily sold to feature phone buyers as if it were a featurephone. These people walk in to get "a phone" and get sold android by the weenies at the carriers store... but they don't use them for apps or for even browsing the web, which is why the web stats on android are so pitiful. Android is really a feature phone operating system (hence the fragmentation and incompatibility)

5. You'd be just as correct to lump all the other Linux derivatives together and claim that there's a "linux smartphone platform".

6. We don't have real hard numbers for shipping devices for android. Amazon doesn't publish actual numbers. Google doesn't publish actual numbers. Samsung doesn't publish actual numbers. There's a lot of hype and BS claims that these devices are selling in huge numbers, but when samsung was forced to report actual sales in the lawsuit last year, it turns out that when journalists were claiming big sales the reality was pitiful. Most of these "sales" are actually non-android featurephones also sold by these companies who don't break them out because they want to seem more dominant than they are.

Get me real numbers reported in annual or quarterly reports that would result in an investigation by the SEC and charges of fraud if they were made up-- and use those.

Apple provides them. Until android manufacturers are willing to report the numbers under penalty of perjury like Apple does, they're just PR smoke, nothing more. (or analysts "projections")

These stats are being distorted by the propaganda of android fans who claim that it is a platform, and a smartphone platform at that and that it is dominant
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
daneoni Avatar
154 months ago
Considering that there are only 6 iPhone models and at least 1000 Android phones I wouldn't say that 37.8% (iOS) to 52.3% (Android) is too bad of a margin
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SnowLeopard2008 Avatar
154 months ago
People use iPhones more because they last longer. It's not built from really poor quality plastic (ala Samsung). It's got software updates for at least twice or thrice as long as Android based devices (exception are Nexus devices). And let's not forget there are better quality apps on iOS in general. Oh and iOS is easier to use and the interface is consistent across multiple devices, multiple versions of the OS.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sazivad Avatar
154 months ago
Meh. Neither Android nor iOS are ever going to disappear, and seasonal changes are to be expected.

I'm sure when the S4 comes out, we'll see a spike in Android marketshare.

And when the 5S comes out, we'll see a spike in iOS marketshare.

etc.

EDIT: Oh !@#$, I didn't notice at first that Microsoft actually lost marketshare. Did it ever even go above, like, 5%?

Jeez.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
samcraig Avatar
154 months ago
Sad sad post.

BTW - "rushed to market" ? Yeah - maybe MAYBE OS1.0 - but now? Not so much. ICS and JB weren't "rushed" no matter how much you really want to say it.

What functionality has been compromised in Android. Name some.

Your rationalization is hilarious.

Lastly - why so defensive and dismissive? Someone at Google kidnap a loved one?

I really don't think it's right to call android the largest "smartphone platform", because:

1. Really its "mobile platform" and when you look at the post-PC era, tablets, namely the iPad Market is a big chunk of mobil devices, and when you include these numbers- the iPad has really dominant share making iOS the dominant platform. Looking just at "smartphones" is selective reporting to try and exclude the market where Apple has had the most success, skewing the numbers in favor of android.

2. Android is hugely fragmented. iOS devices are mostly all running the latest iOS software and even ones that aren't can all run apps without modification. This is not true on android where covering %80 of the market requires changing your app to support 167!!! different devices.

3. I don't consider android to really be a platform, simply because it is so compromised. As a ripoff of iOS they had to rush it to market and in doing so compromised a lot of functionality.

4. Android is primarily sold to feature phone buyers as if it were a featurephone. These people walk in to get "a phone" and get sold android by the weenies at the carriers store... but they don't use them for apps or for even browsing the web, which is why the web stats on android are so pitiful. Android is really a feature phone operating system (hence the fragmentation and incompatibility)

5. You'd be just as correct to lump all the other Linux derivatives together and claim that there's a "linux smartphone platform".

6. We don't have real hard numbers for shipping devices for android. Amazon doesn't publish actual numbers. Google doesn't publish actual numbers. Samsung doesn't publish actual numbers. There's a lot of hype and BS claims that these devices are selling in huge numbers, but when samsung was forced to report actual sales in the lawsuit last year, it turns out that when journalists were claiming big sales the reality was pitiful. Most of these "sales" are actually non-android featurephones also sold by these companies who don't break them out because they want to seem more dominant than they are.

Get me real numbers reported in annual or quarterly reports that would result in an investigation by the SEC and charges of fraud if they were made up-- and use those.

Apple provides them. Until android manufacturers are willing to report the numbers under penalty of perjury like Apple does, they're just PR smoke, nothing more. (or analysts "projections")

These stats are being distorted by the propaganda of android fans who claim that it is a platform, and a smartphone platform at that and that it is dominant
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ymmit Avatar
154 months ago
Maybe one of these days Apple's share price will again reflect reality.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)