Leading Platform in Smartphone Sales is Still Android

As stated by data that was released yesterday, Jan. 6, on the U.S. market from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Google’s Android platform maintains its lead of smartphone sales. The information was gathered for a three month period that ended in November 2013.

Kantar Worldpanel, which was formerly known as TNS Worldpanel, is an international company that deals in consumer knowledge and insights based on continuous consumer panels. Through market monitoring, advanced analytics and tailored market research solutions, Kantar Worldpanel analyzes what people buy, what they consume and the attitudes behind this behavior.

ComTech tracks mobile phone behavior and the customer journey. This includes the purchasing of phones, mobile phone bills and airtime. It also tracks the source of purchase and phone usage. This data is exclusively focused on the sales within this 3 month period rather than market share figures.

It should come as no surprise that Android smartphones captured just slightly over half the smartphone market with a 50.3 percent share of the U.S. market. With a 43.1 percent share of smartphone sales, iOS landed in second place. Although, it looks like Apple did well, it is actually down 9.9 percent from this same three month period last year.

It was only about a year ago that analysts were predicting that the Android platform might have reached a saturation point at was at its peak. The numbers from Kantar Worldpanel show that there is still plenty of room at the top to keep moving just a little.

An interesting note is that Windows Phone has become the third largest operating system in the U.S. Smartphone sales for Windows Phone was at nearly five percent. Now this may not sound like a lot when compared to 50.3 and 43.1 percent, however it does represent a 2.1 percent rise from last year. That is just shy of a 50 percent increase.

Dominic Sunnebo, who is the global strategic insight director for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, had the following to say, “The iPhone 5S and 5C were the two bestselling smartphones in the U.S for the 3 months ending November 2013. However, increased rivalry from Android brands and a resurgence of LG and Nokia has made year-on-year share gains for Apple difficult. This is especially true on T-Mobile.”

On the carrier side, Verizon continues to stay in the lead. The figures show that Verizon comes in with slightly less than a third of smartphone sales with 31.7 percent. AT&T has the second place slot with 28.3 percent of sales.

What may come as a surprise is that T-Mobile surpassed Sprint to take the third place position. T-Mobile racked up 13.3 percent of smartphone sales. This is a rise of about 6.3 percent for T-Mobile from last year’s numbers.

A possible reason for T-Mobile’s rise is its Uncarrier strategy. This was started early in 2013 and has been successful. It is a way of attracting first time buyers who are looking to finally upgrade to a smartphone.

By having the option to upgrade your smartphone as newer models become available allows people the opportunity to see what is out there. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 percent of those that purchased an LG and Nokia smartphone from T-Mobile in November 2013, were first-time smartphone buyers.

Keeping in mind what Sunnebo said above, we can see how this has affected Apple. We are looking at 55 percent new buyers who purchased a Nokia or LG smartphone as compared to just 39 percent who purchased an Apple device.

Sunnebo sees this as, “First-time smartphone buyers remain a key demographic for carriers and brand alike. The lower end iPhone 5C represents an opportunity for Apple to attract these customers. Thus far the majority of 5C customers have come from other smartphone platforms, though if historical trends hold, the lower end model (historically the older iPhone model following the release of a new iPhone), should be able to attract this demographic with its lower price and comparable specs.”

The following tables give you a further breakdown of the numbers: