Apple’s iPhone 4S launch helped the company regain global momentum, with the United States driving growth, according to new data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. In the latest 12 weeks of sales, Apple’s share was 44.9 percent, while Android took 44.8 percent of the U.S. market. Apple increased its share of the British smartphone market from 22 percent a year ago to 34 percent.
“Apple has continued its strong sales run in the U.S., U.K. and Australia over the Christmas period," Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director, said. "Overall, Apple sales are now growing at a faster rate than Android across the nine countries we cover."
Windows Phone hasn't broken the 2 percent market-share barrier in any country, despite the new Nokia Lumia range. The Nokia Lumia 800 finished Q4 outside of the top 10 smartphones sold in Great Britain.
“BlackBerry remains the brand of choice in the smartphone gifting market. Fifty-seven percent of BlackBerrys were purchased as gifts in quarter four," Sunnebo added. "This rose to 76 percent during December and a whopping 55 percent of recipients were under 16, indicating BlackBerry’s hold on the U.K. youth market."
Android is making a bigger impact in Latin America. Although the smartphone market is still in its infancy, Android took a 28 percent share in Brazil and 20 percent in Mexico.
