Kantar WorldPanel: Apple iPhone top handset, Android top OS in U.S. and China during Q4 2015

According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, the Apple iPhone was the top-selling handset in the U.S. and China during the fourth quarter of 2015. In the U.S., the iPhone had a 39.1% share of the smartphone market during the fourth quarter. Despite that figure, first time smartphone buyers are not flocking to the device as much as they once were. 11% of fourth quarter iPhone sales in the U.S. came from rookie smartphone purchasers, down from 20% a year ago. 

Looking at OS distribution, Android remained the leader as it accounted for 59.1% of sales in the U.S. and an even higher 71.4% in China. Huawei was the top seller of Android handsets in the country during the fourth quarter, with a 34% market share. Xiaomi was second with 24%. With its wide price range running from the expensive to the cheap, Android continues to grab sales in the U.S. from the increasingly smaller number of first time smartphone buyers. And in the states, lower priced Android phones from ZTE, Huawei and Alcatel are taking business away from Samsung and HTC.

In the U.S., Android and iOS were followed by Windows, which had a 1.6% share of Q4 smartphone sales. BlackBerry accounted for .1% Android gained 11.5 percentage points from the 47.6% share it owned in the U.S. during the 2014 fourth quarter.  Apple's iOS slipped 8.6 percentage points over the same time period.

source: KantarWorldPanel via CNET