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iPhone 5 helped Apple capture majority of U.S. smartphone market for the first time ever

Published Jan 7th, 2013 10:53AM EST
iPhone 5 Sales

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Apple’s (AAPL) smartphone market share has surpassed 50% in the U.S. for the first time ever, according to Kantar Worldpanel. The launch of the iPhone 5 boosted iOS sales over a 12 week period ending on November 25th, giving iOS a 53.3% share of the market. During the same period, Android sales were said to have declined 10.9 percentage points to 41.9%. The research firm found that consumers have continued to shun Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone platform, which totaled a mere 2.7% of smartphone sales in the November period.

“The iPhone 5 has been successful this period however we also see that Apple’s older models – the iPhone 4S and 4 have also contributed to the growing share of iOS,” Kantar Worldpanel ComTech analyst Mary-Ann Parlato said. “This is particularly the case for first-time smartphone iPhone buyers where we see the older models still selling well amongst this group.”

Not only did the iPhone 5 help Apple’s market share, it also boosted AT&T (T). The company was found to be the top-selling smartphone carrier with 35.4% of all sales in the past 12 weeks, compared to 31.9% and 14.5% shares from Verizon (VZ) and Sprint (S), respectively. Smartphone sales on Sprint were said to be down 5% year-over-year.

Of those who purchased an iPhone in the timeframe covered in Kantar’s report, 27% came from another smartphone OS while 34% upgraded from an older Apple model and 40% of buyers were new to smartphones entirely. In fact, first-time buyers helped iOS become the top-selling operating system on Verizon’s network, beating out Android for the first time ever.

The firm found that 44% of Verizon’s feature phone user base upgraded to an iPhone, compared to 38% of AT&T’s basic phone users. The company found more success from customers with older models, however, with 51.7% upgrading to a newer iPhone, compared to 15% on Verizon.

Dan joins the BGR team as the Android Editor, covering all things relating to Google’s premiere operating system. His work has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business and Yahoo News, among other publications. When he isn’t testing the latest devices or apps, he can be found enjoying the sights and sounds of New York City.