Android & Verizon Top U.S Smartphones, Verizon Women Featured Up to iPhones

Android amounted to  51.5% sales share of the smartphone market with  iOS following at 42.5% in the quarter ending in June 2013, reported Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.  Windows Phones shares have increased to  4% smartphone sales share, up 1.1% since last year.

In the U.K.,  Apple’s iOS  surged 5.2 percentage points to 30.5% of the British smartphone market, driven by first-time smartphone buyers opting for the iPhone 4. Windows Phone continued to consolidate its position as the third OS globally, with strong performances in Britain and France where it has 8.6% and 9.0% of the market respectively.

Verizon remained the the top carrier and was also the only carrier to increase its share over this time (36.9% share, up 1.9% over the last year). AT&T remains second (26.5%), Sprint in third (13.8%) and T-Mobile in fourth position at 10%.

Verizon is currently offering the iPhone 4 for free with a contract and the iPhone 4S for $99.99, bringing down the initial price to iPhones.

Kantar Worldpanel ComTech global consumer insight director Dominic Sunnebo states, “Verizon continues to lead in this second quarter of 2013, driven by its ability to provide a range of highly demanded brands and models, which has ultimately led to the carrier capturing the most sales from all three top OS brands.”

For the three months ending June 2013, iOS sales were made up of 40% sales from Verizon, 39% from AT&T, 10% from Sprint and 8% from T-Mobile. While T-Mobile has seen the most increase in iOS sales with the introduction of the iPhone on this carrier occurring only recently, Verizon scores the most sales over the period.

Verizon saw many female feature phone users upgrade to iPhones. In fact, 57% of Verizon’s sales this quarter occurred thanks to female buyers, compared to 50% on AT&T. Verizon also saw a lot of their first time smartphone buyers purchasing iPhones (25% vs. 21% of featurephone users upgrading to iOS on AT&T). However, AT&T saw slightly more upgrading to an Android from a featurephone on their carrier (29% vs. 18% on Verizon).

Verizon was successful at capturing the most Android and Windows sales as well. 35% of Android’s sales came from Verizon, 17% from Sprint, 16% from AT&T and 13% from T-Mobile. Windows sales also saw similar numbers in Verizon’s favor.