It's that time of the... quarter again, statistics lovers, and after seeing Apple dominate both the Chinese smartphone market and the global mobile industry in its entirety during the final three months of 2021, you will certainly not be surprised to hear that iPhones have also reigned supreme in the same period in the US.
That being said, Apple's share of the pie stateside over the always productive holiday season is nothing short of remarkable, according to the latest report published by Counterpoint Research, sitting at a towering 57 percent.
One heavyweight champion, several improving lightweights
Yes, ladies and gents, more than one in two smartphones sold in one of the world's biggest markets between October and December 2021 was manufactured by Apple, vastly improving the company's score from "only" 42 percent during the same year's third calendar quarter, for instance.
In second place, Samsung enjoyed year-over-year growth of 11 percent, which probably would have been a more impressive result if it wasn't for OnePlus and Motorola's much greater progress. Of course, that's not an entirely fair comparison given that the regional silver medalist was still capable of easily fending off its smaller rivals, accounting for a solid 24 percent of US sales in Q4.
Despite racking up a comparatively modest 9 percent share, Motorola is arguably this quarter's most exciting success story, riding the popularity of its low to mid-end devices... and LG's demise towards an all-time company record.
Believe it or not, the October - December 2021 timeframe was Motorola's best quarter ever in the US in terms of unit sales, with the modest Moto G Pure proving particularly and incredibly successful en route to a top three placing among the nation's most popular smartphone models.
In fifth place, OnePlus somehow managed to boost its quarterly sales numbers by an outstanding 524 percent (!!!) from Q4 2020, which still barely got the brand to 2 percent market share. That absolutely ginormous year-over-year progress was primarily owed to the mid-range Nord family, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the mainstream popularity (or lack thereof) of the Chinese company's high-end products stateside.
Just a blip on Apple's radar
With 1 percent share, Google finished sixth on its home court (and basically the only market that the search giant seems to care about most of the time), which is a disheartening result no matter how you look at it.
That includes looking at it from a year-over-year growth perspective, which does provide a slightly rosier picture than the aforementioned 1 percent share, with said surge standing at a decent-sounding 56 percent.
The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are no smash hits.
But the fact of the matter is that the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro enjoyed a much stronger marketing effort than 2020's lone Pixel 5 model, and at least for the time being, the sales progress doesn't seem to reflect the presumably increased spending. It probably didn't help that the Pixel 5a 5G mid-ranger came out a little too late, not to mention its terribly limited availability.
After all, the only reason why overall sales in the region were "flat" instead of declining amid supply constraints, delayed launches, and COVID-related in-store restrictions was that carriers kept their holiday promotions as "strong" as ever.
In the always important carrier channel, T-Mobile posted "modest" growth to rank first, followed by Verizon, whose sales were "flat", and AT&T, with a 4 percent decrease compared to Q4 2020. Interestingly, AT&T did dominate the whitelabel device chart, beating T-Mobile in part due to the "Un-carrier's" REVVL-branded handsets facing major holiday shortages.
Along with Tracfone and Boost Mobile, T-Mo crucially contributed to Alcatel (or rather TCL)'s somewhat surprisingly strong position in the manufacturer rankings. Yes, the two related brands are ahead of both OnePlus and Google, once again highlighting the importance and relevance of ultra-affordable phones sold through "traditional" retail channels like physical carrier stores.
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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