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Apple starts 2015 by slipping to 41.3% U.S. smartphone share, Samsung stays flat at 29.3%

Android instead of iOS
Image Credit: NgeWall

Apple unsurprisingly started off 2015 like it has the last few years: as the top smartphone maker in the U.S. The company took 41.3 percent of the pie, while its Korean rival Samsung stayed flat at 29.3 percent in January. Rounding out the top five were LG, Motorola, and HTC.

As for the mobile OS wars, Google held its crown and Apple maintained silver. Rounding out the top five were Microsoft, BlackBerry, and Symbian. Only Android and Windows Phone managed to gain share at the start of the year.

The latest data comes from comScore, which estimates 184 million Americans owned smartphones (75.8 percent mobile market penetration) in January, up 4 percent since October. Here is how the top five smartphone makers fared last quarter:

comscore_smartphone_oem_january_2015

Apple slipped 0.6 points, which is the same amount that LG grew as it hit 8.0 percent of the pie. What’s curious here is that the impact of holiday sales did not bring what many expected: neither Apple nor Samsung gained share.

This is particularly surprising for Apple, which typically performs well during the holiday quarter, especially given that the iPhone refresh cycle is timed to occur right in advance. In fact, last quarter the U.S. company broke its iPhone sales record. This would suggest that despite these successes, the smartphone market still outgrew Apple’s growth in the U.S.

On the software side, Google started 2015 very strongly:

comscore_smartphone_os_january_2015

Android grabbed 0.9 points to hit 53.2 percent, while Apple’s iOS dipped 0.6 points to 41.3 percent, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone gained 0.1 points to 3.6 percent. BlackBerry continued to tumble and Symbian stayed flat at the lowest figure possible.

Android and iOS in the U.S. hit a combined 94.5 percent market share in January. That’s actually just shy of an all-time high in December of 94.7 percent. That means, for the first time in comScore’s tracking, Android and iOS slightly let up on their chokehold.

Could this mean the duopoly has finally peaked? Many are certainly hoping so.

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