Apple iPhone leads the way in the UK for October with a 43% share

Thanks to the demand for the Apple iPhone 4S from UK iPhone users, Apple took over the top spot in the area's smartphone sales last month, topping Android in October for the first time since late last year. The Apple iPhone scored a 43% share of UK smartphone sales in October.

 For the three months ending in October, the iPhone had a marketshare of 27.8%, up 2.8% year-over-year. That figure trailed the 46% slice of the pie enjoyed by Android handsets for the quarter ending last month. That was off from last year's reading of 49.9% For what it's worth, BlackBerry had a 19.6% ownership of the UK market in the quarter ended in October, down 1.3% from the prior year's figure.

Research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech said that the introduction of the Apple iPhone 4S took marketshare away from Android last month. In addition, 75% of Apple iPhone 4S buyers in the UK were switching from a previous version of the iPhone while 14% upgraded from last year's iPhone 4. The Apple iPhone 4S has had incredible demand in the country since its launch on October 14th and many stores sold out of stock this past Friday for Black Friday.

There are some reasons why this might be a one month aberration. The Apple iPhone 4S rolled out nearly 18 months after the iPhone 4 came to market, about 50% longer than the usual time between Apple iPhone launches, which set up some strong pent-up demand for a new version of  Apple's iconic smartphone. While Apple fans will jump all over the monthly number, the quarterly results still show Android ahead by a comfortable margin.

source: AllThingsD