As smartphone manufacturers release their figures for the second quarter of the year, analysts and research firms have begun to piece together the state of the current smartphone market. Kantar has released its Worldpanel ComTech report, compiled from 240,000 interviews per year in the U.S., which states that Android is the top platform in the country for the third consecutive quarter.
Google's mobile platform has risen once again above 50 percent sales share after dropping to 49.3 percent in the first quarter. As such, Android now holds 51.5 percent of sales in the United States, while iOS sits at 42.5 percent. Comparing year over year, however, Android is actually down from its 52.6 percent share for Q2 of 2012, while iOS is up from 39.2 percent.
As such, the iPhone performed a lot better in Q2 than the iPad, which saw shipments sink to a new low, according to TrendForce.
Putting aside the two major players, Microsoft finally made some significant headway over the last year, increasing Windows Phone's sales share to an even four percent, up from 2.9 percent in Q2 2012. Most analysts agree that Nokia's Lumia line of Windows Phone devices is at the heart of this growth.
On the flipside, BlackBerry's U.S. share plummeted from 4.0 percent to a mere 1.1 percent in the last year.
Meanwhile, in terms of carriers, Kantar found that Verizon managed the best performance, increasing sales by five percent over last year, making it the only operator to grow its numbers. Sprint experienced the most significant loss, with unit sales figures down 8.5 percent.
“Verizon continues to lead in this second quarter of 2013, driven by its ability to provide a range of highly demanded brands and models, which has ultimately led to the carrier capturing the most sales from all three top OS brands,” said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
Edited by
Alisen Downey 
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