Samsung claims US Android lead with 32pc share

Samsung today said it had taken the top spot in the US among Android manufacturers. The company was responsible for 32.1 percent of all Android phones sold in the US this summer, according to Gartner. The success was almost exclusively attributed to Galaxy S phones, which had reached three of four major carriers at the time.

It came just as Samsung was also marking having sold three million Galaxy S phones in the US after later models like the Fascinate on Verizon and variants for smaller carriers came around.

The turnover is symbolic for Motorola, which has usually claimed the top spot. Verizon has based its success on the Droid and to a lesser extent sequels like the Droid 2 and Droid X. A decision by Motorola to limit most of its best phones to the one carrier may have cost it valuable share, however, as Samsung's ubiquity will have overwhelmed Motorola even if it was more popular on its preferred network.

Claiming the top spot creates an unusual problem for Apple, which has taken to suing Android phone makers to help its competitive edge. Unlike HTC or Motorola, Samsung supplies Apple parts ranging from displays and flash memory to manufacturing Apple-designed processors. Samsung also has scale that neither HTC nor Motorola can currently match and is already the top cellphone brand by sales in the US when including non-smartphones.

By Electronista Staff