iPhone 5 Helps iOS Beat Android on U.S. Smartphones

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Google's platform, however, dominates worldwide market.

During the 12 weeks ending on October 28, Apple's iOS accounted for a 48.1 percent smartphone market share in the United States, with Google's Android settling for 46.7 percent.

However, elsewhere, iOS isn't as popular as its fellow ecosystem. According to research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Android was running on 73.9 percent of all smartphones in Germany during the period in question. Android dominated in Spain as well with a 81.7 percent share.

Apple's success in the U.S., meanwhile, was due to the iPhone 5, Kantar said. The company noted that the last time iOS had a higher market share than Android was when the iPhone 4S launched last year.

While other reports suggest otherwise, Apple has benefited greatly from customer loyalty. Kantar said 92 percent of consumers who own an iPhone will upgrade to another Apple smartphone.

As for overall worldwide share in the smartphone market, Android accounts for 75 percent (90 percent in China), while iOS settles for 14.9 percent.

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Zak Islam
30 Comments Comment from the forums
  • reprotected
    Looking at the rates of the Apple news recently, I'd say they are much too low, but still beats the average Tom's Hardware news article quality. Why hasn't Zak received his promotion yet?
    Reply
  • dark_knight33
    It's easy to make it look like "loyalty", when in fact it's just Apple's main focus to keep you locked into their 'ecosystem'. Everything about an Apple device tries to force you to do it their way or f*** off. I broke free after the 3GS, and I've never looked back. I don't hate people who use iPhones, but I do pity the ones that won't try other things because they live a too sheltered mobile device life.
    Reply
  • dark_knight33
    otacon72Was with RIM for the better part of a decade. Tried Android for a week...that was long enough. Went back to RIM. Tried the iPhone5 and have been happy ever since.
    "Android" can be very different experience from phone to phone. HTC (Sense), Samsung (Touchwiz), Motorola (Blur), and others. There are complete launcher replacements that satisfy anyone's needs. They even have an iOS clone launcher: http://lifehacker.com/5850644/espier-launcher-faithfully-duplicates-the-ios-home-screen-on-android.

    What does iOS have? iOS. Android represents choice & responsibility. It's not as easy for everyone to use off the bat as iOS seems to be. I found it pretty easy to switch between, and Android not much more complicated. However, I also realize I'm more inclined to technology and learning it. There's nothing wrong with not wanting to have to learn a new mobile OS. It's being afraid to switch because you might lose you music, contacts, and info that is the problem.
    Reply
  • freggo
    So Apple dominates in a market that's 5% of the world population, and looses in the remaining 95%.
    Yeah, sounds familiar.
    Let's see hoe long that fat bank account keep them going.
    I give it 3 years max., then they will be looking for a Steve Jobs type again.
    Reply
  • john15v16
    @otacon72...are you really Zak under alias???
    Reply
  • LordConrad
    Why would anyone want an iPhone when they could have a Galaxy, a Note, or a Nexus?
    Anyone?
    Bueller?
    Reply
  • fuzzion
    reprotectedWhy hasn't Zak received his promotion yet?
    Zak did get promoted. His now in charge of Tom's Quality assurance department. WHich also does explain alot.
    Reply
  • Haserath
    Used to have a 3gs. Tried two android devices since then. Wants an iPhone 5.
    Reply
  • Solandri
    freggoSo Apple dominates in a market that's 5% of the world population,It's not really dominating in the U.S. This is just a case of cherry picking the time period to include the first month of iPhone 5 sales, while excluding the first two months of Galaxy S3 sales. Normally you compare quarters since they're standard and everyone in the industry uses them. But for some reason this firm decided to compare a time period offset from 3Q by 28 days in a direction favorable to the iPhone. Why Oct 28 (which was a Wednesday, so they're cutting off the data in the middle of a business week)? Who knows. If you're going to compare something that isn't 3Q, wouldn't monthly sales be a more logical timeframe?

    A similar thing happened the other way with the 3Q numbers, with the Galaxy S3 outselling the iPhone 4. Because it included the second month of S3 sales, as well as the 2-3 months when everyone was waiting for the iPhone 5 to come out. But in that case it was just coincidence because that's how the releases fell relative to 3Q.
    Reply
  • dominik78
    HaserathUsed to have a 3gs. Tried two android devices since then. Wants an iPhone 5.
    I'm a hardcore android fan, but I don't see a reason why anyone should have voted this guy's statement down. Had to vote it back up to 0.
    Reply