Apple Topples Over Samsung With 34% Marketshare

Apple Topples Over Samsung With 34% Market Share Last Quarter

After a number of years being in second place, Apple finally takes a trophy home for the fourth quarter of 2012. Apple sold 17.7 million handsets in the U.S., and Samsung pulled through with 16.8 million handsets sold. This puts Apple at 34% of the U.S. Marketshare, leaving Samsung at 32.3%.

The battle has only just begun. The real competition lies between Android and iOS. Apple has been in the game since 2007, but more importantly when they released iOS 2.0 in 2008 which included the now infamous App Store. Since then, Apple has become the household name for intuitive smartphones with little to no learning curve. On the other side we have Google’s Android OS, which was announced in 2007 and sold on the first Android-powered smartphone in October of 2008, the HTC G-1. Their Market for applications has always been known for being more open, which has good and bad implications. On the one hand, several apps over the years have been linked to malicious software on phones. Otherwise, the open Market leads to more applications that are not restricted in functionality by Google.

Samsung jumped into the Android ring in early 2010 when they released their first entry, the original Galaxy S. This line of phones shipped overseas initially, but several U.S. variants were released a few months later. Because of their own UI skin on top of Android (Touchwiz), the company gained many fans for turning Android into a more pleasant and easy to use interface for the masses.

This last quarter could be a turning point for Apple. Some might say that the increased numbers correspond with Apple’s release of the iPhone 5. However, Samsung has multiple high-end devices on the market as well with the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II. With both companies laying down great devices last year, it’s certainly interesting that Apple pulled off a win in the fourth quarter.

However, to keep things in perspective, Samsung still took the year with 31.8% of the Marketshare, Apple being stuck at 26.2%. Apple is still a bit behind in the year-long view, but small victories will hopefully help them get a head start early this year. As rumors build that Apple may release several iPhones this year with more attractive price points, this year should be more of a Skywalker vs Vader year. Samsung should be packing this year with the Galaxy S4, so let the smartphone wars begin!