Apple outsells Samsung as iPhone tops US mobile activations chart for Q1 2019

The iPhone was the most popular smartphone bought in the United States, according to figures produced by CIRP, with Apple narrowly beating Samsung for market share in the first quarter of 2019, suggesting Apple may see an improvement on its sales in its upcoming financial results.

Apple's main rival in the smartphone market is Samsung, with the two exchanging the top spot in smartphone sales quite regularly. Data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) logging smartphone activations in the United States in the quarter ending in March suggests this time Apple has the upper hand.

In the data, Apple had the highest share of all smartphone brands in terms of activations, taking up 36 percent of the market. Samsung, the nearest competitor, made up 34 percent of device activations, while LG and Motorola have 11 percent and 10 percent shares respectively.

In the case of Apple, the percentage share of the market is up from 2018, but is still far behind the first quarters of 2017 and 2016, with the latter seeing Apple dominate with 40 percent of the market.

Brand share of mobile phone activations (via CIRP)

"Samsung has typically had the highest share, from 30 percent to 39 percent, depending on their product launch calendars," writes CIRP Partner and Co-Founder Mike Levin. "Apple share varied similarly, from 29 percent to 40 percent. The most notable trend has Motorola taking share from LG and threatening to take over third place in the smartphone market."

CIRP's data relates to percentage of market share by activations, so is not a direct indicator of how many iPhones Apple has shipped. The high rise in percentage from 2018 does however suggest Apple could see good financial results on April 30, though as Apple is a global company, it may not necessarily indicate success in other markets.

In the last financial results, while the main news was that China had negatively impacted revenues, the conference call to analysts revealed revenue in the United States in fact increased 5 percent year-on-year, bucking a downward trend shown by European, Japanese, and Chinese sales.

Mobile operating system market share (via CIRP)

In the battle between iOS and Android, CIRP's data calculated Android as making up 64 percent of all US device activations for the quarter, compared to iOS with 34 percent.

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50 Comments

DAalseth 3033 comments · 6 Years

About 5 years ago

Is this across all models for Apple and Samsung?
Samsung sells a number of very cheap phones that could be boosting their sales numbers. Apple on the other hand only sells mid range to expensive phones. Are we comparing Mercedes against Kia here?

jimh2 661 comments · 8 Years

The shocking part of this article for me is that people still buy Motorola phones.

djames4242 654 comments · 14 Years

jimh2 said:

The shocking part of this article for me is that people still buy Motorola phones.

My previous work phone was a Moto X and it was awful. Decent screen and ergonomics, but the battery (which was not user-replaceable) gave out after less than two years and, much like most Android devices, it received a singular major Android update before it became obsoleted. The replacement is a low-end Galaxy (J3). It feels like a cheap piece of crap and also received only one major update before becoming obsolete. Its battery life is excellent, however, and the battery is easy to replace.

Also, Android sucks. Putting widgets on the home screen is brilliant and I wish this were possible with iOS. However, in every other way it just feels like a cheap knockoff to me.

djames4242 said:
Also, Android sucks. Putting widgets on the home screen is brilliant and I wish this were possible with iOS. However, in every other way it just feels like a cheap knockoff to me.

That's why I avoid Android. I've used it on a couple of devices at work, and more recently I occasionally end up borrowing someone's Android phone. It's just mediocre at best. Like you said, some cool ideas, but very poorly executed.

sflocal 6133 comments · 16 Years

Well... it's about time that Samsung is getting some negative media time due to the flop that is their foldable phone. It's nowhere near to the public-execution that people would demand of Apple, but it is nice to see finally. Then again, Apple would never release a foldable iPhone as bad as Samsung did.