Apple can apparently boast of having been the best-selling handset brand in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2011. This news comes from The NPD Group which recently disclosed the results of its latest research that was conducted to gauge mobile phone statistics.
The position of the best-selling phone seller which has been taken up by Apple, was previously dominated by the likes of Samsung and LG. This favorable development for the Cupertino-based company has been attributed to the long-awaited release of the iPhone 4S, in October of last year.
Ross Rubin, executive director, Connected Intelligence for The NPD Group, explained, “Attracted by a faster processor, improved camera and the Siri speech-driven agent, most iPhone buyers paid a premium for the iPhone 4S, making it the top-selling handset in Q4. The iPhone 4S outsold the iPhone 4 by 75 percent, and outsold the iPhone 3GS, available for free on AT&T, five to one.”
“Android has been criticized for offering a more complex user experience than its competitors, but the company’s wide carrier support and large app selection is appealing to new smartphone customers. Android’s support of LTE at Verizon has also made it the exclusive choice for customers who want to take advantage of that carrier’s fastest network,” added Rubin.
According to NPD, the top five best-selling handsets in the fourth quarter of 2011 were the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, Samsung Galaxy S II and Samsung Galaxy S 4G, in the said order. The findings are similar to those recently conducted by Nielsen and ABI Research, which claimed that the launch of the iPhone 4S increased the mobile phone market share of Apple.
While the aforementioned top three Apple handsets occupied 43 percent of the mobile OS share going by smartphone unit sales during Q411, the NPD study revealed that Android and iPhone captured more than 90 percent of the pie, with the former recording 48 percent of the OS share.