Apple Bests Samsung in US Smartphone Shares in Q4 2013

There is a new report out from the NPD Group that discusses smartphone shares in the U.S., the quarterly “Connected Home Report.” It covers devices that deliver content to consumers over the Internet through both fixed and cellular networks.

The NPD Group, Inc., which was formerly known as the National Purchase Diary, is a leading global market research company; The NPD Group consistently ranks among the top 25 market research companies in the independent Honomichl Top 50 report. The media and the research industry acknowledge NPD as a credible source of information on the market research industry. 

According to the NPD report, both Apple and Samsung were the top two place takers in the U.S. smartphone race, as both companies rose substantially from the same time in 2012. Apple saw a seven percent increase to 42 percent for Q4 2013.

We also saw the numbers rise for Samsung, but only by four percent. The closing figures for Samsung show that ownership is sitting at 26 percent, which puts Apple in the number one spot with Samsung coming in at a clear second.

If we look at some of the other companies, we see that Motorola, HTC and BlackBerry each lost ground, while LG picked up a few shares. You can see how everyone fared in the graph below:

Illustration courtesy The NPD Group

The information that you see on the above chart comes from a survey conducted by the NPD between September and November for both 2012 and 2013; you’ll notice that December is missing. That means that a lot of holiday information was not taken into consideration. The survey consisted of 4,500 smartphone users in the U.S.

Based on the results of the report, the NPD Group makes the conclusion that as more U.S. consumers migrate to smartphones they are increasingly opting for iPhones and Samsung Android phones.

Smartphone penetration increased to 60 percent of cell phone users in Q4 2013. What should come as no surprise is that with the increased smartphone penetration we are also seeing an increase in consumers’ data usage. Average data usage increased to 6.6GB per month for the same period.

In a statement, John Buffone, who is NPD executive director, said “Considering the increase in prominence of smartphone music apps, it’s not surprising that hardware manufacturers such as Beats are leveraging partnerships with carriers, like AT&T, to break into the streaming music market. This allows AT&T to offer subscribers more of what they want in the way of innovative music apps and provides Beats a partner capable of driving trial in a market where consumers already have an affinity for the music services they use.”

Some of the key metrics that were used in the Connected Home Report include:

• Device ownership penetration rates and installed base;
• Device penetration rates by household room;
• Share of brand ownership;
• Internet connectivity rates by device brand.