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October 23, 2013

Apple iPhone 5S Retakes U.S. Market for Apple, but Samsung Still Holds Worldwide Lead

The new reports from Counterpoint Research made it pretty clear that what many had expected to be the case all along was, indeed, the case: the iPhone 5S—along with the iPhone 5C—had put Apple back on top of the smartphone heap in the United States. But Apple's dominance may not prove long-lived, or even universal, as other factors contribute to the overall market picture.

Indeed, when the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C arrived, sales for Apple smartphones took off like a shot. Despite the fact that the new Apple devices were available for just 10 days of September, the mere existence of said devices on the market was enough to propel Apple to the top slot in the U.S. The Counterpoint Research data shows that Apple sold fully 4.8 million such devices in the United States alone in just those 10 days, giving Apple fully 38 percent of the United States smartphone market.

That in turn saw Samsung device sales drop significantly, as Apple took the lead back from Samsung, who had held the lead in the market since May. But looking at the breakdown of how the numbers went revealed some interesting bits to the market overall. For instance, while the iPhone 5S was the best-selling phone in the United States, the iPhone 5C was not the second best, but rather the third place winner. The Samsung Galaxy S4 had the second place slot, meanwhile, as reports emerged that the iPhone 5C is considered “slightly downmarket.” iPhone buyers—according to Counterpoint Research research director Peter Richardson—are willing to pay more for the best experience.

It's clear that Samsung and Apple control a huge swath of the smartphone market in the United States; with 68.1 million smartphones sold in the United States from April to the end of September, 41.9 million of said smartphones—around 61 percent—were either Apple or Samsung devices. Samsung is leading Apple going into that same time frame, but with the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C's release, that's likely to change as more users turn to new Apple devices. With the holiday shopping season—typically Apple's best time—approaching, those numbers are only likely to change more in Apple's favor. 



Counterpoint further noted that no Android brand besides Samsung did particularly well in U.S markets. LG's share of the market fell below 10 percent, despite the recent release of the G2, while Motorola took five percent and HTC saw its share fall to around three. Nokia, meanwhile, did worse, selling under 400,000 total phones throughout the United States for the month of September, and under 1.5 million for the quarter.

It's not too surprising that Samsung held the top slot in the United States for as long as it did, taking advantage of an increasingly lengthy period in which there were no new Apple devices to bring out the Galaxy S4. But few things in the United States sell quite as well as new Apple hardware, so with a new one out, Apple could clearly make its move on the top slot.

But it is worth noting that Samsung still holds the number two slot, which suggests that Apple may have some real competition in the making, and may have to come up with something a little more long-lived to prevent a similar situation from happening next year. The smartphone market is a constantly changing affair, and keeping an eye on the ebb and flow often produces unusual insights into a variety of collateral markets.




Edited by Ryan Sartor


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