US Smartphone Market Share
Given the rising mobile commerce sales in recent years, having a mobile-friendly website is important to any business. But before jumping into looking at mobile website designs, you must first understand some basics, starting with the smartphone market shares of your target market.
To provide some perspective, worldwide, smartphone manufacturers Apple and Samsung lead the pack, with a combined market share of more than 50%. But what about in the United States, where mobile advertising spend is set to hit $194.8 billion this year?
US smartphone market share breakdown
According to the latest data on smartphone market shares in the US, as of September 2023, Apple has the biggest piece of the pie, with 56.41%. In other words, more than half of all smartphones sold there are manufactured by Apple.
Apple has a strong lead over its closest rival, Samsung, whose market share of 26.58% is 29.83 percentage points lower than Apple’s.
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Apple and Samsung have a huge lead over other brands in the US. Their total smartphone market shares amount to 82.99%. This means that more than eight out of every 10 smartphones being used in the US are either Samsung or Apple devices.
Motorola has the third-largest smartphone market share, with 4.23%. This is followed by Google, with 2.42%, and LG, with 1.08%. The combined smartphone market shares of these three manufacturers add up to 7.73%—around one-seventh of Apple’s.
Samsung vs. Apple market share in the US
Let’s take a closer look at the smartphone market shares of the two most popular manufacturers and how they’ve evolved over the years.
Even though Apple’s smartphone market share is currently more than two times that of Samsung’s, its lead over the South Korean manufacturer has shrunk since a decade ago.
In 2011, Apple’s lead over Samsung was significantly wider. Then, Apple’s smartphone market share was 54.04%, while Samsung’s came in at 9.12%—a difference of 44.82 percentage points.
The narrowing of Apple’s lead over the past decade wasn’t from the brand losing market share, but from Samsung growing its. In fact, Apple’s market share has held relatively steady in this period, ranging between 50.85% and 59.54%.
Samsung, on the other hand, has managed to triple its share. The biggest growth came between 2011 and 2014, when its market share increased from 9.12% to 25.34%.