ComScore has released its rolling survey of U.S. mobile phone users between October and December 2013. These figures show that Apple has a 41.8 percent usage share, up by 1.2 percent since September. Meanwhile Android has a marketshare of 51.5 percent, down 0.3 percent since September.
This report also divides sales by manufacturer, showing a clear dominance by Apple and Samsung. Samsung now has 26.1 percent usage share, up 1.2 percent since September. Meanwhile other manufacturers are all less than 10 percent usage share: Motorola at 6.7 percent (down 0.1 percent), LG at 6.6 percent (no change) and HTC at 5.7 percent (down 1.4 percent).
The report also highlights that 156 million people in the US now own smartphones (65.2 percent of the mobile market), up 3.2 percent since September.
ComScore got to these figures based on usage share, not marketshare. That’s an important distinction, since it means the reports don’t show shifting market trends as obviously, but it does show real-world usage, arguably a more important metric. It’s actually beneficial for Apple compared to other reports, since Apple phones are expensive but will typically last two years. Meanwhile other manufacturers might make cheaper phones to boost marketshare figures but they’ll be considered obsolete and possibly broken within a year.
