Apple Inc. (AAPL) Gained U.S. Smartphone Share Before iPhone 5S Launch

Updated on

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was still gobbling up additional share of the U.S. smartphone market in the months before the launch of the iPhone 5S and 5C. That’s according to the latest data from comScore. This is in line with what Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty reported last month using data from their AlphaWise Smartphone Tracker.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) Gained U.S. Smartphone Share Before iPhone 5S Launch

She found that Apple had sold about 34.5 million iPhones by Sept. 15 in the September quarter, which covered just a few days of preorders for the iPhone 5C and no sales for the iPhone 5S.

comScore’s data goes through August

The latest data from comScore ends earlier than Huberty’s data. It shows U.S. smartphone market share for the three months ending in August. Nonetheless, it does demonstrate that demand for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone remained high even in the months just before the launch of a new handset.

It shows that Apple had a 40.7 percent share of the U.S. smartphone market at the end of August. This is a 1.5 point jump from the three months ending in May when Apple had a 39.2 percent share. At the end of August, we still didn’t have an official announcement about the iPhone 5S, although there were plenty of rumors.

Most were expecting to see a new iPhone in September. However, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was in the process of heavily discounting older iPhone models during much of June, July and August, so this was likely a factor in the continued strong demand for the company’s phones.

How others stack up against Apple

In terms of smartphone brands, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) held second place in the U.S., with 24.3 percent of the market share. HTC Corp (TPE:2498) came in third with 7.4 percent of the market, while Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Motorola had 6.9 percent of the market.  LG Electronics Inc (KRX:066570) came in fifth with 6.7 percent of the market.

For smartphone platforms, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android remains the most popular in the U.S. at 51.6 percent. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS platform is in second place with 40.7 percent of the market. BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) remains in third place, although its market share is falling fast, declining from 4.8 percent in the May quarter to 4 percent in the August quarter. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s Windows Phone was in fourth place with 3.2 percent.

Leave a Comment