Samsung managed to outperform Apple's smartphone sales on the latter's home turf for the first time in years, new market data reveals. Industry watcher Strategy Analytics reports Samsung seized just over one-third of third-quarter mobile sales in the United States, or 33.7%, to be exact. In comparison, Apple accounted for 30.2% of the market during the same three-month period.
Samsung's achievement constitutes a 6.7% improvement compared to last year. The last time it came out on top in the U.S. market was more than three years ago, back in Q2 2017.
Here's why every U.S. victory still matters for Samsung
While a company the size of Samsung can certainly afford not to be the top performer in every single market on the planet, every new victory in the stateside smartphone race is still worth celebrating. Because the U.S. remains the world's largest market for flagship mobile devices by quite a degree, which also makes it the one with the highest potential rewards, i.e. profit margins, for any prospective manufacturer.
Of course, today's report describes U.S. mobile market trends before the iPhone 12 series launched, so it's extremely unlikely that this triumph is anything but short-lived. On the other hand, Samsung Group will be able to take some solace in the fact it's supplying so many iPhone components this year that it might as well be competing with itself.
Then there's the fact that the Galaxy S21 range will likely be hitting the store shelves earlier than usual, so Samsung may be able to pressure Apple much more than it usually does in the post-holiday period.
