The latest numbers from comScore, Inc., “a global leader in digital measurement and analytics,” showing U.S. mobile phone market share for April 2014, reveal that Android is now well entrenched as the Number One smartphone OS, with 52.5 percent of market share by platform, followed by Apple with 41.4 percent. Apple, however, continues to hold the lead in market share by device manufacturer, with 41.4 percent of the market, while Samsung comes in second at 27.7 percent.
In both areas, trends are working against Apple, although very gradually. Apple’s market share by platform and device both declined by o.2 percent since January 2014, according to comScore, while Android grew its OS market share by 0.8 percent over the same period, and Samsung took a 1 percent greater share of the handset market. Given the established predominance of Android in non-U.S. markets, and its popularity with Chinese and other cheap device manufacturers, the U.S. numbers will provide little comfort to Cupertino, especially after the less-than-overwhelming response to the release of iOS 8, which most commentators have described as Apple still trying to play catch-up to Android.
Microsoft, meanwhile, seems to be making little headway in its bid to build Windows Phone OS as a major alternative platform. Its platform market share stands at 3.3 percent, only 0.1 percent up on the January 2014 figure, while hardware partner Nokia is nowhere to be seen on the list of top OEMs.
