Just a few weeks ago, we reported that Samsung and Apple were the only two smartphone manufacturers seeing growth in the United States, and that the pair were slowly eating away at their rivals’ market share. But when you take old-fashioned feature phones into account, the situation looks a little different.
New data from Counterpoint Research suggests that strong December sales have helped LG overtake Apple to claim the second-largest stake of the U.S. phone market. As you might expect, Samsung is still way ahead in first.
The iPad may be the king of tablets in some markets, but Apple’s device cannot compete with the Nexus 7 in Japan. Its premium price tag is causing tablet buyers to opt for Google’s 7-inch slate instead, despite its smaller display and lack of a rear-facing camera. One survey of Japanese electronics stores has found that the Nexus 7 has claimed 44.4% of the tablet market.
Apple is one of just two smartphone makers currently seeing any kind of growth in the United States at the moment, and together with Samsung the company is slowly but surely clawing away at the market share held by the likes of LG, Motorola, and HTC. One analyst believes, however, that the Cupertino must make big changes if it wants that growth to continue.
Apple’s either has to dramatically reduce its iPhone profit margins and make the handset cheaper, or face losing valuable market share to cheaper smartphones.
The International Data Corporation has published its most recent mobile market forecast and unsurprisingly, they’re predicting Android to maintain its strong market share lead over the next four years. In fact, there’s really not much surprising about the report at all.
Android tablets have grabbed 14 percent of tablet market share, according to new research. While Apple’s iPad is still king, with up to 55 percent of third-quarter tablet shipments, tablets running the Google Android system are gaining ground, and fast.
ABI Research found data that shows the iPad losing more of its dominant position to Android competitors, as reported on CNET today. The iPad is showing a decline of 14 percent, the lowest its been since the iPad was introduced two years ago. Samsung, Amazon, and Asus tablets were among the tablet manufacturers that account for that Android increase, with the Google operating system powering over 44 percent of all tablets shipped.
In the race to the top of the smartphone market, it’s only Apple and Google now.
There are two fighters left in the battle for market share dominance in the mobile space: Apple and Google. Android powers Samsung’s flagship handsets, and the Korean company continues to crush Apple in terms of sheer volume of units sold. Without Android, Samsung wouldn’t be near as successful.
But Apple is showing incredible growth, especially in emerging markets like China and Brazil. Smartphone sales are cannibalizing ’dumb phones’ rapidly, and Apple is leading the smartphone pack with Samsung and Android.
Apple devices currently account for over half of all mobile web traffic in the U.S. and Canada, according to Chitika. During August 2012, Apple’s share of web traffic on mobile devices grew from 63.75% to 65.03%. Samsung trails behind at a distant second place with a 12.47% share.
“With the iPhone and iPad, Apple dominates the mobile market when it comes to web usage,” reports Chitika. “The company had another stellar month, and now its devices generate over 65% of all mobile traffic.”
As smartphone shipments surge, the mobile market remains dominated by two operating systems: Android and iOS. Android maintains a commanding lead, with over 68% of all smartphones shipping with the young and robust OS. This, of course, comes at the expense of its elders, such as BlackBerry and Symbian, while iOS keeps its small but steady pattern of growth as it gears up for the release of its next grand iteration.
No surprises as the latest Nielsen numbers show Android and iOS leading U.S. smartphone market share. Both operating systems continue to gain at the expense of RIM — who has all but fallen into the “Other” category. Speaking of the “Other” category: Windows mobile, Windows 7, Symbian, and Palm/WebOS were all grouped together, combining for a measly 5.9% market share.
In its first year, the Mac sold just 372,000 units. PC clones were reaching two million units, or six times the amount of sales of the Mac. And things got worse from there, climbing to a vertiginous 60x by 2004.
Now, though, according to everybody’s favorite Apple analyst and Christopher Walken soundalike Horace Dediu, the gap has dropped to just 2:1 – if you count iOS in with OS X.
![Apple And Google Continue To Lead The Smartphone Race By A Long Shot [Report]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/DSCF0031.jpg "DSCF0031")
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