Apple's iPhone Continues To Dominate US Smartphone Marketshare While Samsung Builds Up Momentum

The iPhone remained the best-selling smartphone in the U.S. during the three-month period ending in April while Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (KRX:005935), managed to narrow Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) lead, and it was the only manufacturer to grow its market share in the country since January, according to a new report released by comScore on Tuesday.

During the period, 167.9 million people -- up 5 percent since January -- in the U.S. owned smartphones, and 41.4 percent of those subscribers used various iPhone models, which helped Apple to become the country’s top original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, for April 2014.

While Apple’s market share was down 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter ending in January, Samsung’s share of the U.S. smartphone market grew 1 percentage point to 27.7 percent in April from 26.7 percent during the same period, the report said.

Apple and Samsung were followed by LG Electronics Inc. (KRX:066570) with 6.5 percent, Motorola with 6.3 percent and HTC Corp (TPE:2498) with 5.3 percent of the market.

In the smartphone operating-system segment, Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Android was the leader, accounting for a 52.5 percent share of the market, up 0.8 percentage points from January. Apple’s iOS came in second with 41.4 percent while Windows Phone (3.3 percent), BlackBerry OS (2.5 percent) and Symbian (0.2 percent) rounded out the top five.

ComScore also compiled a list of top smartphone apps in the U.S. during the period, in which Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) ranked as the No. 1 app, attracting 74.1 percent of the app audience. Facebook was followed by Google Play (50.9 percent), YouTube (49.7 percent) and Google Search (48.3 percent). Check out the table below.