Samsung dethroned Apple to regain the top position in the US smartphone market in the three-month period ending May, market research firm Kantar's new report said on Wednesday. Although the South Korean tech giant accounted for the highest market share during the period, Samsung's latest flagship, Galaxy S8, failed to make the top-three best-selling smartphone list in the country.
According to Kantar, Samsung's market share during the period rose to 36.2 percent from 32.9 percent during the previous three-month period. While Samsung suffered a fall of 1.1 percentage points over the same period a year ago, Apple holds a 34 percent market share, up 4.7 percentage points from a year earlier.
Apple wouldn't mind losing the market share to Samsung because the Spring has never been the season for the iPhone-maker, which launches its flagship phones in the Fall. For Samsung, the months leading to the second half of the year are crucial in its bid to extend the lead over Apple in the absence of new iPhone models.
In the March-April period, the Galaxy S8 did play a key role in pushing Samsung up the ladder, but the phone's individual sales numbers were not up to the mark.
"The Galaxy S8 launch helped Samsung regain the top position in the USA, but the bounce from the flagship launch was less than would be expected from a full product redesign," Dominic Sunnebo, global business unit director at Kantar, said in a statement.
Apple and Samsung together dominated smartphone sales for the period, each with five models on the top 10 best-selling list. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus occupied the top two spots, followed by the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S8.
When it comes to operating systems, Android dominated the segment with 64.8 percent market share, down 3.7 percentage points from the same period a year earlier. Apple's iOS, on the other hand, accounted for 34 percent share of the market, up 4.7 percentage points from last year.
"In the three months ending May 2017, iOS performance proved strong in the USA, Australia, and Japan, with Android making gains in GB, Germany, and France. In urban China, there was little year-on-year movement, with Android capturing 80.5% of smartphone sales, up one percentage point from a year earlier," the Kantar report said.
