A new report published by comScore shows steady growth in the US for Windows Phone, a significant contrast to what we saw earlier in the year. While Android remains the number one platform in the region with Apple sat in second, Microsoft is pretty much level with BlackBerry, who has been struggling to halt the downhill fall the company has experienced.
According to the comScore report, Android was ranked as the top smartphone platform in the month of September with a market share of 51.8 percent (down 0.2 percentage points). As noted above, Apple followed in second with iOS taking 40.6 percent (up 0.7 percentage points). BlackBerry sat in third with 3.8 percent (down 0.6 percentage points), while Microsoft was closing the gap on 3.3 percent (up 0.2 percentage points).
What about OEMs? Unfortunately, Nokia didn't make the top 5. Apple came in first with 40.6 percent of US smartphone subscribers (up 0.7 percentage points in June). Samsung came in second with 24.9 percent (up 1.2 percentage points), with HTC on 7.1 percent, Motorola with 6.8 percent and LG in fifth place on 6.6 percent.
While these numbers differ from what we've seen in Kantar reports (detailing sales in multiple markets instead of subscribers), the overall picture is more or less the same. Microsoft is certainly making grounds with its mobile platform - sales are on the rise and so is the company's share of the smartphone pie. We've been monitoring the success of Europe and beyond, but there appears to be a change in the wind in North America.
Here's a snippet from a recent Kantar report:
"Other numbers in the United States are revealing as Android has dipped 2.5% in sales in 2013, along with an expected decrease for BlackBerry. Only iOS and Windows Phone has shown growth in sales, conceivably signaling a changing tide in the States."
I'd also recommend you check out the Canalys report from Yesterday for numbers in other markets. Nokia will be venturing into the phablet market with the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 1320 to push into markets. How these two Windows Phones perform is yet to be seen, but with the rise in popularity of larger-than 5-inch displays, we could well witness an accelerated growth.
Source: comScore
