Kantar, the UK-based Market Research, Insight and Consultancy Division of British multinational advertising and public relations firm WPP plc, has just come out with its latest data about smartphone market share in the US. The report claims, Android has increased its market share in the country by 2.8 percentage points from 62.1 percent share of the market in the three-month period ending in April 2015 to 64.9 percent of the market in the three months ending in May. Not only has Android increased its market share in the country, the single largest Android manufacturer worldwide, Samsung, has also managed to reestablish itself as the preeminent smartphone vendor in the country, wresting the mantle from Cupertino, CA-based Apple Inc.
Much of the credit for Samsung’s – and by extension Android’s – showing, goes to the Korean electronics major’s latest flagship handset, the Galaxy S6, which has taken its pride of place as the third highest selling handset overall, behind the iPhone 6 and the company’s own last generation flagship Galaxy S5, in terms of units sold during the assessed time period, when the company reportedly accounted for 55% of all Android handsets sold in the country. Fellow South Korean manufacturer LG Electronics also reportedly managed to contribute handsomely to the increase in the market share of Android, by nearly doubling its own market share in the US from this time last year. Taiwanese vendor HTC and Lenovo-owned Motorola however, have seen their fortunes take a turn for the worse, as they have both seen their market share plummet from where they were last year. It bears mentioning here that Motorola was riding on the success of the first generation Moto G, which was still creating waves among smartphone enthusiasts on a tight budget. HTC meanwhile, has been unable to recreate the magic of the One M7 with its two subsequent followups, and the current generation One M9 has widely been regarded as a bit of failure on most counts.
Meanwhile, in what might be called a serious reversal of fortunes for one of the up-and-coming technology companies in China, Xiaomi has reportedly been displaced by Huawei. Apple continues to sit pretty at the top as the number one smartphone vendor in the country, having wrested the top spot from Xiaomi earlier this year.