Research firm Kantar Worldpanel has released a new report (via The Next Web) highlighting U.S. smartphone sales over the March-May period, finding that Apple's share of the market rose by 3.5 percentage points compared to the prior-year period. The report attributes that growth to the iPhone becoming available on T-Mobile USA, the last of the four major U.S. carriers to begin offering the device.
Consequently, with Android remaining unchanged (+0.1%) to date this year, the gap between the two leading operating systems has decreased, according to data released today by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
Through the 3 month period ending May 2013, Android continues to lead smartphone sales at 52%. Close behind is iOS with 41.9% of sales. Windows remains in third with 4.6% of sales, up 0.9% versus the same period last year.
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According to the report, the iPhone 5 was the best-selling smartphone at T-Mobile during the quarter, despite not having launched until the middle of the survey period. The iPhone's 31% share of T-Mobile smartphone sales was still well short of the device's 60% share of sales at AT&T and even its 44% share at Verizon, but with the device only having been available for half of the quarter, a more realistic measure of the iPhone's popularity among T-Mobile customers will come in future quarters.
Top Rated Comments
Really... The Title should have been"
"Android/iOS unchanged within margin of error. BlackBerry ceases to exist as a phone manufacturer"
Apple and Microsoft have gained ground purely at Blackberry's expense. All of these mobile OS's have really been getting their gains against feature phones and dying smartphone platforms (like Blackberry). It means that going forward the competition becomes more head to head.
Strange as it sounds, up to this point, they really haven't been even competing against each other; more like a race to grab turf (kind of like the early part of the game in Civilization).
Now the real fun begins.
Not that BS again - Windows MOBILE was out before the iPhone was released. Windows PHONE came out years later (and no, it's not the same). And it's very encouraging that Microsoft is finally gaining some momentum. Also, 4.7% might not be a lot, but let's not forget that Apple's desktop and laptop marketshare is somewhere around 8%, it's not that bad, really.
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They're mainly eating into the low-cost Android market and there's LOTS of that to eat :-)