There's a new manufacturing king atop the U.S. smartphone pile – it's Taiwan-based HTC.
A new report from analyst firm Canalys says HTC edged out Samsung and Apple by shipping 5.7 million smartphones under its own brand, earning almost one-quarter of the market. It also shipped an estimated 70,000 under the T-Mobile brand.
"However you count it, HTC has become a deserved leader in the US smart phone market,’ said Canalys VP and principal analyst Chris Jones. ‘This is an awesome achievement for HTC, which has built a premium brand in a highly competitive market in just a few short years. It now has a strong range of 4G Android products, with devices ranged by each of the major carriers, and offers some of the most compelling and differentiated products found on the platform today."
Apple remained highly competitive in U.S. market share, considering it offers just one phone; however, Samsung edged the iPhone maker out for second place. That could easily change when Q4 numbers roll in and sales of all those iPhone 4Ss are counted.
"Apple did not stir the usual excitement levels in the industry with the announcement of the iPhone 4S, but that was never likely to dampen volumes, due to pent up demand from the later than expected launch and the addition of Sprint as a third carrier," said Jones. "Early iPhone 4S sales have shown this is the case, and we expect to see a strong Q4 for Apple."
Globally, based on third-quarter numbers Samsung is No. 1. The Korea-based manufacturer saw sensational year-over-year growth of 252 percent, and 60 percent for the quarter, shipping 27.3 million smartphones under its own brand in Q3 and grabbing 23 percent of world smartphone share. The Galaxy S II, which has become one of the world's best-selling devices, is a big reason why. Samsung had the second-highest quarterly shipment total in smartphone history, Canalys said, only behind the numbers Nokia shipped in the final quarter of 2010.
Research In Motion got more bad news. In just one year, the Canada-based BlackBerry manufacturer's market share has dropped from 24 percent to just 9 percent. Canalys calls RIM's future in the U.S. "bleak."
Overall, the worldwide market grew substantially: 49 percent year-over-year to 120.4 million units.
