During the second quarter of 2018, spanning from April to June, Apple's iPhones accounted for 36 percent of total U.S. smartphone activations, an improvement over last year's numbers where iPhone activations accounted for just over 30 percent of total activations, according to new numbers shared today by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners [PDF].

More customers are choosing iPhone over Samsung devices this year, and Apple's higher number of activations came at Samsung's expense. During the quarter, Samsung devices were also responsible for 36 percent of new activations, but for Samsung, that's a solid decline from last year.

applesamsungactivations

"Apple improved in part at Samsung's expense, whose share of activations declined relative to both last quarter and last year," said Mike Levin, Partner and Co-Founder of CIRP. "In a quarter without any significant phone launches, Samsung had market share only equal to Apple's. A year ago, Samsung had a considerably greater share of sales."

Apple devices and Samsung devices are the dominant brands, due to ongoing consolidation of the U.S. market. LG and Motorola, for example, have lost ground to Apple and Samsung over the course of the last year.

When it comes to operating systems, iOS and Android are, by far, the dominant operating systems in use. iOS accounted for 36 percent of activations during the quarter, while Android, which runs on an array of different smartphones from multiple manufacturers, accounted for 63 percent of U.S. activations.

iosandroidmobileactivations
Compared to last year, iOS's share of activations grew, with CIRP citing increased customer loyalty to their operating system of choice. Given the sheer number of Android devices compared to iOS devices, it's not surprising Android devices are responsible for approximately two thirds of activations.

Consumer Intelligence Research Partners regularly shares these surveys to monitor the state of the smartphone market. Findings are based on a survey of 500 subjects who activated new or used phones during the April to June 2018 period.

Top Rated Comments

KPandian1 Avatar
85 months ago
The colors are reversed in the second graph - had me stumped for a bit.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fairuz Avatar
85 months ago
Wow, that’s really rough for Samsung who literally JUST released the s9. No surprises though since it was practically the same phone as the s8. Also a lot of other Android phones like the pixel 2 are quickly becoming more attrative options than anything Samsung is putting out these days. It seems that gimmicks aren’t selling as well as they once were
Funny thing is the Samsung phone upgrades are more important than the iPhone ones because you get stuck on an old, vulnerable Android version pretty quickly if you don't get a new phone.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
acorntoy Avatar
85 months ago
Only 500 people were interviewed? That’s a ridiculously small sample size for something they then try to translate to millions.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jakewilk Avatar
85 months ago
Wow, that’s really rough for Samsung who literally JUST released the s9. No surprises though since it was practically the same phone as the s8. Also a lot of other Android phones like the pixel 2 are quickly becoming more attrative options than anything Samsung is putting out these days. It seems that gimmicks aren’t selling as well as they once were
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
69Mustang Avatar
85 months ago
First of all chill out, this was not meant to be an argument. Second of all the title of the article is literally “Apple Increases share of of US Smartphone Activations in Q2”. Also the data table you’re referring to is mislabeled, as stated by an above commenter. Samsung and Apple should be switched, or else it would be saying that the s9 launch was stronger than the s8 launch, which is definitely not true by any means
It's a discussion. One which you may discontinue at any time. No one is forcing you to reply. No one claimed the data is mislabeled. Please go back and read what KPandian1 actually stated. He said the colors are reversed in the second graph - making it a confusing read. I hope you realize that switching the Apple and Samsung data would mean Samsung had more December quarter activations than Apple. December. In the US. Apple's largest quarter every year. That would be darn near impossible.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
69Mustang Avatar
85 months ago
Wow, that’s really rough for Samsung who literally JUST released the s9. No surprises though since it was practically the same phone as the s8. Also a lot of other Android phones like the pixel 2 are quickly becoming more attrative options than anything Samsung is putting out these days. It seems that gimmicks aren’t selling as well as they once were
Hmmm. Did Sammy really just release the S9 or did it go a little more like this:
Samsung had 42% activations in the Mar QTR - the quarter where they released the S9. Apple had 31% during that QTR. The next QTR when they had nothing new, Sammy lost 6% share of activations while Apple gained 5%. What that tells me is Apple has more stable sales year round. I think both companies know that. Probably why Apple typically has a single Fall intro and Samsung has a Spring and a Fall intro approx 6 mths apart to keep sales from ebbing and flowing too much.

Google's Pixels are akin to Microsoft's Surfaces. High brand awareness, low actual sales. Neither has ever been out of the "Other" categories. Neither probably will be either... at least for a long time. I personally like both brands, but that doesn't change the fact that they are more brand than sales.

tl;dr Samsung and Apple lead. Sammy didn't have it as rough as you seem to think.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 18

Apple Expected to Release iOS 18.3 Next Week With These New Features

Thursday January 23, 2025 6:41 am PST by
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones. Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3. Notification Summary Changes Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries Apple Intelligence...
iOS 18

5 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.3

Friday January 24, 2025 1:55 am PST by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes. While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...
Generic iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Beta Coming Soon With These New Features for Your iPhone

Friday January 24, 2025 8:16 am PST by
iOS 18.3 is expected to be widely released next week, and that means the first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner. Apple has previously implied that iOS 18.4 will be released in April, as that is when it promised to make Apple Intelligence available in even more languages. Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far. Apple Intelligence for Siri Siri ...
Apple Pay Walmart Feature

Walmart Stands Firm on Why It Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in the U.S.

Thursday January 23, 2025 7:32 am PST by
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today. A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
apple tv 4k new orange

New Apple TV Launching This Year With These New Features

Wednesday January 22, 2025 6:01 pm PST by
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device. The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
iOS 18

Here Are Apple's Full Release Notes for iOS 18.3

Tuesday January 21, 2025 4:31 pm PST by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes. The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Horizontal Single Feature

Kuo: iPhone 17 Models Won't Have Smaller Dynamic Island

Friday January 24, 2025 9:09 am PST by
The upcoming iPhone 17 models that Apple plans to release this year will not feature a smaller Dynamic Island, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today. On social media, he said that he is expecting the size of the Dynamic Island to remain "largely unchanged" across the iPhone 17 lineup. His statement is contrary to prior rumors that we've heard about planned changes for the iPhone 17 models. ...
iPhone 16 Apple Store Levels

Gurman: Apple Stores Receiving 'Merchandise' Updates Next Week

Saturday January 25, 2025 5:07 pm PST by
Apple's retail stores will be rolling out "merchandise/floor marketing updates" next week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman did not explicitly say if the store updates are related to any upcoming product announcements, but he did mention that next week is around the time that Apple rolls out its annual Black Unity watch band for the Apple Watch. In each of the past four years, ...
apple power beats pro 2

Apple's First Product Announcement of 2025 is Imminent

Thursday January 23, 2025 2:48 pm PST by
It's also time for Apple's first product announcement of the year. Last year, Apple said it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and the wireless earbuds are expected to launch very soon. Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code In his Power On newsletter last weekend, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the...