Apple Leads US Smartphone Market In Q2 While Samsung Phones Cut Into iPhone’s Lead

Apple continued to dominate the U.S. smartphone market in the second quarter of 2014 while Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Android topped the chart for leading smartphone operating systems, according to a report released by comScore.

In the June quarter, 173 million people owned smartphones in the U.S., with Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone accounting for the majority of the handsets. While iPhones helped Apple capture 42.1 percent of the U.S. market in the second quarter of 2014, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KRX:005935) managed to strengthen its foothold in the U.S. by accounting for a 28.6 percent share of the market, gaining 1.6 percentage points over the first quarter.

LG Electronics Inc. (KRX:066570), Motorola and HTC Corp (TPE:2498), all of whom lost market share during the three-month period, rounded off the top five.

In the smartphone operating system segment, Android led with a 51.9 percent market share. Apple’s iOS was in second position with a 42.1 percent share of the market, followed by Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone, Blackberry OS and Symbian. However, while Apple and Microsoft both managed to gain some ground compared to the previous quarter, Android's share slipped slightly in the same period.

Rise Of Local Brands In Emerging Markets

Although Apple and Samsung smartphones are the most popular among U.S. consumers, the rise of local brands in emerging markets such as India and China has given both companies a hard time.

According to a report from Counterpoint Research, Indian smartphone brands together captured more than half of the country's smartphone market in the second quarter of this year. Micromax, a local smartphone manufacturer, became the leading mobile-phone vendor in India for the first time with a 16.6 percent share of the market, surpassing Samsung, which came in second with 14.4 percent.

Samsung lost ground in China too, where local brand Xiaomi beat the South Korean company to take the top spot in the second quarter, according to a Canalys report. Xiaomi accounted for 14 percent of the Chinese smartphone market during the period, compared to Samsung’s 12 percent, which was down 6.3 percentage points from the same period last year.

Apple was not among the top five smartphone vendors in both Indian and Chinese markets.