Analyst has Apple, Samsung win at cost of HTC, RIM

Apple and Samsung have been gradually taking over the US smartphone market, Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley said in a research note Tuesday. Based on channel checks e saw all three iPhone models gain real-world sell-through share in November and the iPhone 4S continue to be the top seller at AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon. Samsung had achieved a rare feat, however, and saw the Galaxy S II take the second-place spot away from the regular iPhone 4 on AT&T.

Variants on Samsung's pre-Nexus flagship were also at second place at Sprint and in the front at T-Mobile, where the absence of Apple gave it the lead. At Verizon, the launches of the Motorola Droid RAZR and HTC Rezound put them in at second and third respectively, knocking the base iPhone 4 out of the top three. At least the RAZR was at risk of being ousted by the Galaxy Nexus in December, however, although Apple wasn't seen as vulnerable.

Windows Phone eked out an extremely rare top-three finish on T-Mobile, where the HTC Radar 4G came in third place.

In spite of having three devices on the podium at four major carriers in the short term, long-term trends still showed that HTC was losing ground. Where it virtually controlled US share outside of AT&T in June, with dominant spots at Sprint and T-Mobile, it had lost more broadly just half a year later. Investigations had suggested that, in step with its public estimates, HTC was losing share worldwide.

RIM, which hasn't been in the top three of the major US carriers for some time, was also suffering. Its sales had "slowed significantly" in November after the rush for the Amazon Kindle Fire led to a cautious lowering of expected iPad shipments from 14 million to 13 million for the season.

By Electronista Staff

Post tools:

TAGS :  

Amazon, iPhone, industry, Verizon, Microsoft, htc, sprint, Symbian, Nokia, AT&T, Android, BlackBerry, Motorola, Samsung, T-Mobile, RIM, RAZR, mobile phones, Apple, Windows Phone, Galaxy, Droid, iPad, Canaccord, Kindle Fire, Galaxy Nexus, Rezound