Technology

Apple US Smartphone Subscriber Share Slips Again in November

Paul Ausick

Published: January 8, 2016 9:55 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 3:16 pm

For the three-month period ending in November, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) lost 1% share of the U.S. smartphone subscriber market and now leads all original equipment manufacturers with a 43.1% share, down 1% compared with the August total of 44.1%. Samsung Electronics’ added 0.6% share to total 28.0%, compared with its August total of 27.4%.

In the October ranking, Apple’s share had dropped 0.9% and Samsung had added 0.6% share, compared with the three-month period ending in July 2015.

LG Electronics added 0.5% to an August share of 9.1% to a yield a November share of 9.6%. Motorola’s share rose 0.6%, from 4.7% in August to 5.3% in November, and HTC’s share remained unchanged at 3.4%.

The data are contained in the latest report on the U.S. smartphone market from comScore and are based on a three-month average for September, October and November, compared with the three-month period that ended in August 2015.

On the operating system (platform) front, Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Android added 1.4 points of share, to rise from 51.7% to 53.1% and remain the top platform. Apple lost a point, falling from 44.1% in August to 43.1% in November. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) dropped 0.1% to post a 2.8% share, and BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ: BBRY) lost 0.2% to post a 1.0% share in October.

The top five smartphone apps in the comScore survey were Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) with 77.2% reach for all smartphone users at least 18 years old, YouTube (61.2%), Facebook Messenger (60.3%), Google Play (52.1%) and Google Search (50.9%). The percentages have changed slightly, but the rank order remains the same as last month. Pandora Radio from Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P), with a reach of 42.2%, remained in eighth-place behind Google Maps and Gmail. Instagram finished ninth and Apple Music, making its first appearance in the top 10, finished 10th.