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Apple and iOS Continue to Make Small Gains in U.S. Smartphone Market Share

Friday March 7, 2014 7:41 am PST by Kelly Hodgkins
Apple retained its crown as the number one handset manufacturer among consumers in the U.S., while Google's Android operating system remained the number one platform, according to comScore's latest MobiLens and Mobile Metrix reports. These figures measure smartphone ownership and cover the three months ending January 2014.

comscore-mobilens-makers
Apple beat out rival Samsung with 41.6 percent market share as compared to Samsung's 26.7 percent. When comparing changes over the measured periods, Apple, Samsung and LG made small gains, while Motorola and HTC fell. Apple's market share continues to grow, but its rate of adoption is slowing.

comscore_trend_jan14
Apple may be the top handset maker, but iOS is outnumbered by the volume of Android phones on the market. Apple's iOS platform was number two with 41.6 percent of the smartphone market, while Google's Android OS was number one with 51.7 percent market share in the recently ended period.

comscore-mobilens-platforms
iOS was only the platform to gain ground in the three-month period, inching up from 40.6 percent in the period ending October 2013 to 41.6 percent in the most recent period. Android and BlackBerry lost ground, with each platform dropping 0.5 percentage points.

comScore measures both ownership and usage across a customer's primary smartphone and tablet. It uses an intelligent online survey as well as both panel and census-based measurement methods to compile its data.

Tag: comScore
[ 64 comments ]


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0815
55 months ago
while I find those numbers always very interesting - it is also amusing to look at different outlets reporting very different outcomes, always massaged to show what the core readership wants to read (or which message the author wants to send).

As usual, depending on how you look at the numbers, you can read almost anything in them, e.g. looking at manufactures vs OS vs devices (and even there it depends on what do you include in which group).

Bottom line: everyone is doing just fine, nobody is doomed and people have the choice and can buy devices based on there preferences and needs. So it is good news for everyone, even though many try to read bad news for some into it.
Rating: 12 Votes
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3N16MA
55 months ago

Jonny Ive needs to be replaced with someone who knows what the hell they are doing!


You win two apple pies for providing us with a random and stupid comment.
Rating: 8 Votes
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Cali Fornia
55 months ago
Samsung is outgrowing Apple by 30% (+1% vs +1.3%), Apple is doomed! :eek:;)
Rating: 6 Votes
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pubwvj
55 months ago
Statistics are such great ways to hide the truth.

Android is not one thing. Android is not one vendor. Android is not compatible with Android.

iOS is one thing. iOS is all by Apple.

So, if we were to redo that chart in an honest manner it would be Apple at the top and way down below them would be all the little Android cloners.

I see iPhones, iPads and iPodTouches all around. I almost never see Androids.
Rating: 6 Votes
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iolinux333
55 months ago

Could be that people who jumped ship just to try out Android are probably realizing that the grass isn't quite so greener on the other side and are slowly trickling back to iOS's great user experience, Apple's excellent customer service, and the richness of the App Store.


I jumped ship from android after 3 years, to ios (loving ios BTW), after getting sick of google being constantly in my face with Google+, eliminating drag&drop to SD, trying to do away with SD cards completely, doing away with privacy, taking away features with each update, and never ending lag issues. I hope to someday have a pure open source phone but until that day I guess I'll stay with ios. Google can go fsck themselves.
Rating: 3 Votes
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Rogifan
55 months ago

Jonny Ive needs to be replaced with someone who knows what the hell they are doing!


According to Apple (https://developer.apple.com/support/appstore/), 82% of devices are running iOS 7. Did someone put a gun to people's heads and force them to buy an iOS device or upgrade their existing one? Also do you really believe Jony Ive alone made all the changes to iOS? Apple employs thousands of software engineers/designers. Do you really think none of them had input on iOS? They just implemented whatever Ive wanted whether they liked it or not? If that were the case wouldn't the rumor mill be full of stories about it or wouldn't we hear about employees leaving the company in protest?
Rating: 2 Votes
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jimbo1mcm
55 months ago
Looks like the "best Android phone", the HTC one hasn't helped HTC very much. It was supposed to turn the company around. Maybe, instead of a 180 degree turn, it did a 360 degree turn!! And it is back to the same place it was.

I am not an HTC basher, in fact if IOS was on the HTC one I would love it.
Rating: 2 Votes
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Rogifan
55 months ago

Have to keep remembering that this is comScore. They measure overall ownership, not short term sales.

Still, when did the iPhone 5S / 5C come out? Wasn't it during the period they're talking about?

The fingerprint sensor might've shift ownership over to iOS a bit.

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I feel so bad for HTC. Great design, and I used to love them, but personally had too many problems with the USB port.


HTC can't compete with Samsung's marketing budget. Shame really.
Rating: 2 Votes
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Mockenrue
55 months ago

Funny there are only a few iPhone running iOS and they are not that far away from many different version of Android on multiple MFG's?


More manufacturers doesn't imply more market share when users primarily buy from within the OS and app ecosystem of their choice.

It was recently revealed that Steve Jobs wanted Mac OS to run on Sony VAIO laptops. If that had become a reality, would market share have changed that much? I don't think too many Windows or Linux users would have converted to OS X just because there was more choice in hardware manufacturer.

That's why OS market share trends are so important. Web OS and the Palm Pre were both lauded as class-leading upon their release... iOS and Android are still ripping off some of Web OS's interface elements to this day. But it failed miserably because it didn't have the app ecosystem, and it didn't have apps because it didn't have market share.[COLOR="#808080"]

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We often see what we want to see. I have a serious question. I've seen that anecdote about seeing "iOS devices wherever I go" all over this forum. It's always made me wonder. 1. Are you that much of an :apple: fan that you actively search iOS devices or 2. Is it part of some real world RPG?;)


In all seriousness, it's a psychological effect called Confirmation Bias. Your brain actually notices something more often when it supports a conscious or unconscious belief. It's often a filter in what we read or hear, but it also can affect what we see. Here's another example that I've noticed in myself: when I buy a new car, I suddenly see the same model everywhere. It's not that there are more of them... my brain is now noticing because I have one.
Rating: 2 Votes
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winston1236
55 months ago
Yep, just zoom in and out of a line graph until you find an angle that shows your personal views and call it a trend!
Rating: 2 Votes

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