Consumer Electronics

Apple's U.S. Smartphone Share Lead Widens Ahead of iPhone 6 Launch

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Courtesy of Apple Inc.
For the three months ending in July, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) added 1% of the U.S. smartphone market to its share of OEM sales. Apple now claims 42.4% of the smartphone hardware market in the United States, compared with 28.4% for Samsung Electronics, which gained 0.7% share in the three-month period.

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

On the operating system (platform) front, Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android lost 1% share in the three-month period to post a total of 51.5% of the platform market. Apple gained 1% share during the period and now holds 42.4% of the platform market. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) gained 0.3% to post a 3.6% share, while BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ: BBRY) dropped 0.2% to a 2.3% 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 71.6% of all mobile users who are at least 18 years old. YouTube reaches 53.7% and Google Play reaches 51.7% of mobile media users. Google Search reaches 47.5%, Google Maps reaches 46.2% and Pandora’s streaming music app reaches 45.9%. Twitter Inc.’s (NYSE: TWTR) social media app ranks 14th with a reach of just 21.6%.

Apple’s got a lot of momentum going into next Tuesday’s event that everyone expects will be the announcement of at least one new iPhone, perhaps two phones and maybe even a watch. The company’s stock hit a new 52-week post-split high of $103.74 on Tuesday, but it has dropped back to around $99 following Samsung’s introduction of new products on Wednesday. That may be enough of a dip to reel in some buyers ahead of next week’s announcement.

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