A recent analysis suggests that the iPhone captured 30.7% of the Smartphone market in the US and 14% of the mobile market in 2012’s first quarter. The survey that was carried out by comScore said that this meant that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) now has 1.1% of the Smartphone market, up from the average of 0.5% less than the three months ago. However, this growth was not enough to match the Google Android platform which had an impressive showing growing 3.7% to take 51% market share. The blackberry market yet again fell 16%, and Windows Phone 7 also lost ground in market share by dropping 4.7%.
The report from comScore also found that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) market share had gone up from 47.3% in December to the 51% that it currently holds. The third place for market share was held by RIM with only 12.3%, and this was a drop of 3.7% since December and analysts are of the opinion that its share in the market will continue to drop, as competition mounts from the smart phone. The last place for market share was held by the Microsoft platform, Windows Phone 7, and it had a mere 3.9%.
The research that was carried out by comScore and involved over 30,000 mobile subscribers also found that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was the third largest mobile maker in the US in the first quarter of the year. The top spot was taken by Samsung, with a share of 26%, an increase of 0.7% from the previous quarter, while LG was second with a market share of 19.3%. HTC Corp (TPE:2498) and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc (NYSE:MMI) followed Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the fifth and fourth place respectively.
Therefore, today the market share for Smartphone’s is dominantly held by Android, and Apple’s iOS. However, sales for iPhones in the first quarter of the year reached 35.1 million. This figure has had the public arguing as to who was the top phone maker to sell the most units for the first quarter of 2012.
Estimates from IDC portray Samsung as the global lead in total smart phone shipments for the first quarter of the year. This is the first time that Nokia has been toppled from the top position since tracking of phones sold began in 2004. Samsung seems to have wrestled the top position from Nokia due to the exponential demand for smart phones which has gripped the world market.
Samsung shipped a total of 93.8 million phones representing 23.5% of the total market share, while the erstwhile leader Nokia managed only 11.9 million units, to take 8.8% of total market share. This represented a decline in sales of 23.8% in the global market. Apple also did well taking 20. 8% of all sales for Smartphone globally, representing 35.1 million units.
Therefore, analysts are keen to see what the rivalry between Samsung and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will bring. This is because the two firms showed strong growth in key areas, and they also had great success with their products. For Apple, this was the hugely popular iPhone 4S, while for Samsung, this was the Galaxy Note tablet.
[via: Apple Insider]
