Apple Grows U.S. Smartphone Share Ahead of New iPhone Launch

Consumer Electronics

Published: August 7, 2014 1:20 pm

Last Updated: April 27, 2020 4:18 pm

For the three months ending in June, Samsung Electronics gained 1.6% of U.S. smartphone market share, while Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) added 0.7% to grow its industry-leading share to 42.1%, easily topping Samsung’s 28.6% share.

The data comes from the latest report on the U.S. smartphone market from comScore and is based on a three-month average for April, May and June, compared with the three-month period that ended in March.

On the operating system (platform) front, Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android lost 0.3% share in the three-month period to post a total of 51.9% of the platform market. Apple gained 0.7% share during the period and now holds 42.1% of the platform market. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) gained 0.1% to post a 3.4% share, while BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ: BBRY) dropped 0.3% to post a 2.4% share.

The top five mobile apps in the comScore survey were Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), YouTube, Google Play, Google Search, and Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P). Facebook’s social media app reaches 73.6% of all mobile users who are at least 18 years old. YouTube and Google play each reach 52.1% of mobile media users, Google Search reaches 47.9% and Pandora’s streaming music app reaches 45.6%. Twitter Inc.’s (NYSE: TWTR) social media app ranks 14th with a reach of just 21.7%.

Heading into the fall announcement season for new smartphones from both Apple and Samsung we expect to see one, if not two, larger iPhones from Apple and a new Galaxy Note 4 phablet from Samsung. Samsung has a lot riding on the new products: the reception for its Galaxy S5 smartphone was less than overwhelming, and were it not for the Note 3 phablet, the company would have had an even drearier year.

The launch date for the Note 4 is widely believed to be September 3, with availability likely by the end of the month. Apple is believed to be launching its next iPhone on September 9, and if it is both larger than current iPhones and available sooner than the Note 4, Samsung may get a nasty shock.

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