Apple closes gap on Android in U.S. market share; dumbphones outsell Windows
The general story is that Android is way ahead in the market share race and that is true. Globally, Android makes up over 80% of smartphone sales, but those numbers are boosted by big sales numbers in the mid and low-end market where Android has little to no real competition. But, the U.S. market is a slightly different beast and the numbers are reportedly much closer here.
According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), Apple has closed the gap quite a bit over the past year. CIRP measured Apple at 28% of phone activations in March 2015, but has iOS up to 40% as of March 2016. Of course, according to the numbers iOS had been at about 55% in December 2014, so Apple is trying to regain lost share more than anything else. iOS and Android combined are still by far the most popular platforms, combining for 97% of the U.S. market share, up from 95% year-over-year. Samsung held its 37% share but it was other manufacturers that lost out in favor of Apple.
The saddest news of all might be Windows Phone though. Where Microsoft's platform held at least a few percentage points way back in December 2014, Windows Phone has actually been outsold by dumbphones (labeled "basic" on the charts) in all the measurements since March 2015.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: