We open up this week with some truly interesting news. LG has overtaken Apple in US mobile market share. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that most of their success is probably due to the Google Nexus 4. That’s not the only reason they’re doing so well, however. Recently, LG announced that it has sold more than 1 million Optimus G units in North America, and more than 10 million L-series units worldwide.
According to Counterpoint Research, the number one spot in December of last year belonged to Samsung (big surprise), who had a total of 33% of the mobile market share. Trailing behind, but still in second place is LG at 13% market share and Apple right on LG’s heels at 12% market share.
According to Counterpoint, LG’s sales rose during the holiday season, lifting the company into the runner up spot. LG originally lost the runner up spot in the third quarter of 2011, after the release of the iPhone 4S.
Interestingly enough, the report took into account both the US ‘handset’ market and feature phones. Which means LG’s market share comprised of both mobile types, and Apple’s market share only included handsets (they don’t sell or manufacture any feature phones).
This is certainly amusing news, especially when you consider that Steve Jobs once threatened to bring thermonuclear war on the Android platform. Not only has Android taken the top spot in the mobile market share, it also now occupies the top two spots. Judging by the current success of Android, it shouldn’t be too long before Apple falls even further down that list.
Samsung is clearly set to remain the leader in the mobile market for some time, but it’s refreshing to see other manufacturers working their way up the list. Samsung’s mainstream success certainly has other companies reassessing their own business models. What I mean by that exactly, is that alternate manufacturers seem to be using Samsung as the current success model.
As for Apple’s slew of threats and litigation attacks, all seems to be going downhill ever since the courts ruled against them.
We’ll have a little more information on how LG is performing overall, after their earnings call on Wednesday January 30th.
For those who are interested, the number four spot on the aforementioned list belonged to Motorola at 9% market share, and fifth place was occupied by HTC at 8% market share.
What do you think of LG’s rise to the number two spot? Do you think they can hold the spot and keep it away from Apple? Do you think they deserve the spot, considering most of their success is likely due to the Nexus 4 which is actually a Google branded phone?
Source: The Next Web