Apple Takes US Market Back

                I’m sure you’ve seen them everywhere—on the bus, on train, people going to work, kids, your professor, etc. Yes, you guessed it, the iPhone. Living in NYC, one of the most iPhone dense cities in the world, you really cannot miss this device. The noticeable white earbuds, people taking quick photos and the variety of protective covers are ubiquitous in this small city, and even more prominent amongst NYU students. Even more so with the most recent launch of the iPhone 5, to the extent that Apple’s smartphones now, once again, lead the entire US market.

                If you go to NYU and you see all of these people with iPhones, it might be hard to believe that Android phones had actually controlled the highest percentage of the market for a period of time, up until the release of the iPhone 5. According to Kantar, Apple will continue to amass even more of the market with the holiday season coming up. In Western Europe, demand for iPhones remains high but authorized dealers are saying there simply is not enough supply. On the other hand, while Apple does increasingly well in the States, it only has 1% share in Brazil compared to Android’s 56.7% and 67.5% in China, two of the fastest growing countries in the world.

                It’s clear that Apple and Android are competing neck-and-neck for the global mobile phone market and are doing very well respectively, but others aren’t so fortunate, such as BlackBerry for example. Its US market share has fallen to just 1.6% last month which led to an 8% decrease in share price, despite optimistic gains for its upcoming BlackBerry 10 phone. While iPhones and Androids continue to dominate the market, Research in Motion might be very close to its end. 

-Jonathan Louie