Apple Beats Samsung for Top Spot in Mobile Phone Sales Market

Apple has been getting a smattering of good news, as well as bad news, now that 2013 is truly underway.

Earlier this week it became known that some industry analysts believe that sales of the iPhone might hit their peak by the end of 2013. The rise of smartphones that have screens so big they are competing in size with the tablet, could knock the iPhone off its perch. The Phablet has gotten quite popular since the middle of 2012, which is expected to increase in the next few years. The piece of good news that came today is that Apple has officially passed Samsung as the number one mobile phone vendor in the United States.

The news report shows that Apple shipped about 17.7 million phones in the fourth quarter of 2012, which gave the company a 34 percent market share. Samsung, which had been the top mobile phone vendor in the United States, came in with 16.8 million phones shipped, moving it to second with 32 percent of the market. The only other firm that can compete with either Samsung or Apple, is LG, which is pulling in a paltry by comparison 9 percent of the market thanks to 4.7 million phones shipped. Obviously, Android is still the dominant operating system when it comes to smartphones thanks to Samsung and other companies. Android is becoming so popular (making appearances on Phablets and other smartphones) that its app store, Google Play, is expected to pass Apple’s app store by the end of 2014.

Apple CEO Tim Cook did recently say his company saw record sales numbers in the iPhone and iPad and that despite some analysts being down on the future sales numbers of the company, Apple would not change its approach. "We could put the Apple brand in lot of things and sell lot more stuff but that's not what we're here for,” Cook said. “We want to make only the best products."