Smartphone Preferences
Samsung Electronics is reportedly struggling in the US smartphone market.
According to market research firm NPD on Feb. 23, the number of smartphones sold in the US during 2013 totaled 121 million units, a 21 percent year-on-year gain.
The sales volume of Samsung smartphones in the US amounted to around 310 million units last year. Its market share was 26 percent in 2013, up 2 percent from the previous year.
Apple maintained the top spot ahead of Samsung with 45 percent market share by selling about 540 million iPhones. LG Electronics was in third place with an 8 percent growth in sales, a year-on-year increase of 3 percent, beating HTC in market share. As a result, the Taiwanese smartphone maker’s ranking went down by one notch to 4th place. Motorola, which was recently acquired by Chinese PC maker Lenovo, ranked 5th with a 4 percent market share.
According to data released in mid-February by research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung became the top-ranked smartphone maker in the world last year, widening the gap with second-best-selling smartphone manufacturer Apple in the global smartphone market.
However, the Korean tech giant was not able to overcome the iPhone’s immense popularity in the US. The gap between the Korean and US handset makers was 19 percent in 2013, a merely one percent decrease from a year ago. Meanwhile, US smartphone users with higher incomes are said to prefer iPhones. In contrast, the lower the income, the higher Samsung phone use rate.
NPD reported that 33 percent of high earners in the US making more than US$100,000 a year used iPhones last year. The corresponding figure for Samsung smartphones was just 18 percent. On the other hand, 35 percent of those in lower income groups earning less than US$30,000 per year used Samsung phones, one and a half times more than iPhone usage rates (20 percent).