Early success for the iPhone 5 smartphone has helped Apple to overtake
Google's Android software in the United States, research firm Kantar
WorldPanel said on Tuesday.
Apple's U.S. share of smartphone sales in
the 12 weeks to October 31 more than doubled from a year ago to 48.1
percent, putting it within reach of the record 49.3 percent it managed
in early 2012.
Android's share dropped to 46.7 percent from 63.3
percent, Kantar WorldPanel's data showed, but it continues to dominate
in key European markets. The platform claimed 74 percent market share in
Germany and 82 percent in Spain.
Android's combined share of the
top five European markets rose to 64 percent, from 51 percent a year
earlier, while Apple's share edged up by one percentage point to 21
percent.
Research In Motion Ltd saw its share fall in all but one
of the surveyed markets, sliding to 1.6 percent from 8.5 percent in the
United States, and to 2.7 percent from 8.7 percent in Brazil. In
Germany, the BlackBerry maker's share rose 0.9 percentage points to 2.5
percent.
RIM's stock fell 5.9 percent to C$11.20 on the Toronto
Stock Exchange. But the shares, which soared last week on rising
optimism around RIM's soon-to-be-launched BlackBerry 10 devices, were
still up more than 15 percent from last Monday's close.
© Thomson Reuters 2012