Apple’s Growth Outpaces Samsung’s In Most Recent comScore U.S. Smartphone Share Report

Apple’s iPhone made up some ground in the most recent comScore smartphone OEM market share numbers, covering the three-month period ending in January 2013. Apple’s share rose from 34.3 percent curing the previous quarter to 37.8 percent, a point change of 3.5. Samsung’s share also rose, going from 19.5 percent to 21.4 percent, growth of 1.9 percentage points. HTC and Motorola shed share, maintaining their third and fourth-place spots but each losing nearly as much share Samsung gained.

Screen Shot 2013-03-06 at 12.39.54 PMComScore also measured smartphone platform share, and found that Google’s Android accounted for 52.3 percent of overall U.S. smartphone subscribers aged 13 or older, a drop of 1.3 percentage points vs. the previous quarter. Apple’s iOS gained ground, adding 3.5 percentage points to its share, going from 34.3 percent share in the quarter ending October 2012, to 37.8 percent in the one that just ended in January.

Screen Shot 2013-03-06 at 12.40.00 PMIn other words, according to comScore’s number, Apple was the big winner for the holiday season. Which makes a lot of sense, given that it released the iPhone 5 in September, and the device continued to see supply constraints through October and November leading into the holiday sales season. Samsung’s flagship device, the Galaxy S III, had been on the market since June 2012.

In terms of platforms vying for third place, BlackBerry shed nearly 2 percentage points of its share during the quarter, but a lot of that was likely due to the imminent release of BB10. The first BB10 devices didn’t go on sale anywhere in the world until the end of the month, and they have yet to arrive officially at any U.S. carriers. Next quarter results should be a better indicator of how BlackBerry will fare alongside Microsoft in the U.S. in the war for a third modern smartphone platform.

Apple’s share of the smartphone market was also up from the three-month period ending in December, when comScore pegged it at 36.3 percent, with Samsung up to 21.0 percent, representing growth of 2.0 and 2.3 percentage points respectively. These two continue to slug it out at the top, but the most recent numbers show Apple pulling ahead at a faster rate. We’ll see if the Galaxy S IV launch, likely coming sometime next week, has any influence on consumer buying choices when it comes to the U.S. smartphone market.