Surpassing Samsung’s 16.8 million handsets with 17.7 million iPhones in Q4 2012

Feb 1, 2013 12:29 GMT  ·  By

Strategy Analytics has issued a report to announce that Apple took the crown from Samsung in Q4 2012 to become the biggest phone vendor in the US with 17.7 million iPhones sold in the quarter.

By contrast, the Korean phone maker (which sells a multitude of device models, both cheap and expensive) sold 16.8 million units in the same quarter. LG takes the third spot with 4.7 million cell phones sold.

Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, says Apple’s market share sits at 34 percent in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2012, adding, “This was up sharply from 12.8 million units shipped and 25 percent share in Q4 2011.”

Mawston clarifies, “Apple has become the number one mobile phone vendor by volume in the United States for the first time ever.”

The analyst says Apple’s glorious last quarter of 2012 is owed to its popular iOS ecosystem along with the App Store, “generous carrier subsidies, and extensive marketing around the new iPhone 5 model.”