Technology

Apple's US Smartphone Subscribers Slide Further in December

courtesy of Apple Inc.

For the three-month period ending in December, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) lost 0.7% share of the U.S. smartphone subscriber market, and it led all original equipment manufacturers with a 42.9% share, down from 43.6% in the September ranking. Samsung Electronics’ added 0.8% share to total 28.4%, compared with its September total of 27.6%.

In the November ranking, Apple’s share had dropped 1% and Samsung had added 0.6% share, compared with the three-month period ending in August 2015.

LG Electronics added 0.5% to a September share of 9.4% to a yield a December share of 9.9%. Motorola’s share rose 0.5%, from 4.8% in September to 5.3% in December, and HTC’s share remained unchanged at 3.3%.

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


On the operating system (platform) front, Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Android added one point to its share, to rise from 52.3% to 53.3%, and remains the top platform. Apple lost 0.7 point, falling from 43.6% in September to 42.9% in December. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) remained flat at 2.9% share, and BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ: BBRY) lost 0.3% to post a 0.9% share in December.

The top five smartphone apps in the comScore survey were Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) with 76.8% reach for all smartphone users at least 18 years old, Facebook Messenger (62.5%), YouTube (61.3%), Google Play (51.9%) and Google Maps (50.9%). Facebook Messenger replaced YouTube in second-place and Google Search dropped out of the top five. Pandora Radio from Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P), with a reach of 44.2%, remained in eighth-place behind Google Search and Gmail. Instagram finished ninth and Amazon Mobile, making its first appearance in the top 10, finished tenth, sending Apple Music out of the top 10 after its first appearance there last month.

 

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