Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Has Top Place In US Smartphone Market: Kantar

Early success of the iPhone 5 has aided Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to overtake Google’s Android operating system in the US, as per observations of Kantar WorldPanel revealed on Tuesday.

Apple’s US share of smartphone sales in the span of 12 weeks to 31^st October has more than doubled from a year back to 48.1%, putting it within reach of the record 49.3% that it had managed in starting of 2012.

Kantar WorldPanel’s report showed that Android’s share has plunged from 63.3% to 46.7%, however, it keeps on dominating the crusial Europe markets. The platform claimed 82% market share in Spain and 74% in Germany.

Android’s combined share among the top 5 European markets increased to 64% from a figure of 51% a year back, whereas Apple’s share increased by 1% to 21%.

Research In Motion witnessed a drop in its share in all markets, except one. In Germany, the manufacturer of Blackberry saw a rise in its share to 2.5%.

RIM’s stock slid down 5.9% to C$11.20 on Toronto Stock Exchange. However, the shares that rose the previous week on increasing optimism around the soon-to-be-launched Blackberry’s 10 devices were still up more than 15% from last Monday’s wrap-up.

In actuality, the US was the sole market among the others that were covered by Kantar where the iPhone is leading over sales of Android devices. Kantar’s entire list includes markets of Great Britain, Italy, the US, Brazil, France, Australia, Germany and for the first time, Urban China.

Digging deeper, in China, Android accounts for 67.5% of sales in the quarter with iPhone at just below 20%. Brazil maintains its strong market for Symbian smartphones with more than 30% sales accounted to the platform even though it seems to decline rapidly. Kantar will be including Japan to its list to increase exposure of Asia starting the next quarter.