The 37 million iPhones that Apple sold last quarter certainly had an impact on its market share numbers, according to market surveys from several firms. These numbers are carefully watched by game publishers as they decide how to allocate development resources for the coming year, and right now betting on iOS looks like a pretty good strategy. The latest survey, from research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, shows Apple's share of the U.S. Market doubling from a year ago to 44.9% in the October to December period, nudging out Android which fell from 50% down to 44.8%.
"Overall, Apple sales are now growing at a faster rate than Android across the nine countries we cover," said Kantar's global consumer insight director Dominic Sunnebo in a conversation with Reuters. Meanwhile, Windows Phone share in all nine of the key markets Kantar measured remained at less than 2% despite the high-profile launch of Nokia's Lumia smartphone line.
The NPD Group released their numbers at CES, and they showed Android ending up at 47% US market share versus Apple's 43% US market share. That was quite a change from the end of Q3, where Android held a 60% market share and Apple held a 26% share, according to their numbers. Meanwhile, RIM's Blackberry continued its long slide into oblivion, dropping to 6% market share in the US. NPD said also that Apple held the top three spots in device sales, with the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 4, and the iPhone 3GS, respectively, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S II 4G, the Samsung Galaxy S and the HTC Inspire 4G. Their numbers indicate that some 67% of phones sold in Q4 in the US were smartphones, up from 59% in Q3.
Data from Nielsen showed similar results, with Android share falling to 46.9% versus Apple's 44.5% at the end of Q4, with RIM's Blackberry dropping to a mere 4.5%. These numbers represent the share among the new buyers; the numbers are different when you take into account all smartphone owners. Looking at those numbers, Android has a 46.3% share, Apple a 30% share, and RIM a 14.9% share.
Apple may lose some momentum as new Android models, particularly with 4G connectivity, are released over the next few months. The highly anticipated iPhone 5, which we may see later this year, could have a strong effect on the final totals for the year, as well. Apple has pulled back into clsoe contention with Android in the US market, no matter which market research you believe. Will their momentum continue?
