Apple Number Two Handset Maker in Terms of U.S. Market Share

**Phillip Swanson** · 12-02-2012, 08:04 PM

Apple is now the number two handset maker in the United States in terms of overall market share according to the latest comScore market analysis.

Apple moved ahead of LG increasing their market share to 17.8 percent, which is still a distant second behind Samsung’s 26.3 percent of overall market share. This marks the first time Apple has moved into second place since comScore began tracking mobile phone use in the U.S.

While Samsung still holds a healthy lead over Apple and the rest of the competition, Apple’s percentage of growth for the three-month period ending in October more than doubled Samsung’s rate of growth over the same time. Apple had a fantastic 1.5 percent increase in market share compared to Samsung’s .7 percent increase. Apple and Samsung were the only manufacturers in the top five who actually increased their market share. However, Apple’s large increase can likely be attributed to the release of the iPhone 5.

Overall the shift toward smartphone use amongst consumers continues with 121.3 million users owning a smartphone handset. This represents a 51.9 percent piece of the mobile market meaning dumb-phones are now in the minority in the U.S. In terms of mobile OS dominance Android captured 53.6 percent of the mobile market with Apple nearly twenty points behind with 34.3 percent of the mobile OS market share.

Source: AppleInsider

**Cer0** · 12-02-2012, 08:06 PM

RIM took a decent hit last quarter.

Sort of surprised MS didn't come up higher with as much as they are advertising their Windows Phones on TV and billboards.

**thazsar** · 12-02-2012, 10:23 PM

I wonder, though, how long this will last. The ip5 has been released so that fire is going to slowly dwindle. Samsung, on the other hand, will make 300 more phones in the upcoming year and 'those' phones are going to get better and better.

Apple may have doubled Samsung's growth this quarter but if Samsung is increasing by .7% during an iPhone release, then they're still gonna be going strong in all the other quarters while Apple starts to decrease.