Report: Third Quarter Smartphone Shipments Reach 39.5 Million Units in the US

Strategy Analytics has recently released a new report that says that the volume of smartphone shipments in the United States mobile market has hit 39.5 million units during the third quarter of this year. That figure however represents a 2 percent decrease compared to that of Q3 2016 (40.1 million units). The market research firm attributes this slight drop to the mixed sales results of this year’s iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus models (despite the very high demand for the iPhone X, also released this year).

Once again, Apple led with shipments of 12 million iPhone units, capturing a commanding 30 percent market share in Q3 2017. While reaching 12 million units is impressive for Apple, it did not improve upon the 13 million units it managed during the same quarter last year. Also, its 30 percent market share this year failed to beat the 32 percent market share it posted in Q3 2016. 

By shipping 9.9 million units, Samsung came in second with a 25 percent market share, which sees the South Korean tech giant improve upon the 24 percent market share it registered the previous year. LG has done enough to hold on to the third spot, despite some pressure from ZTE. LG owns a 17 percent share of the market, slightly growing from the 16 percent percent market share it posted last year. As for ZTE, its smartphone shipment volume of 4.6 million units secures its fourth spot berth, allowing it to increase its market share from 9 percent twelve months ago to a significantly better 12 percent market share this year.

Completing the top five is Motorola, who impressively doubled its smartphone shipments to 2.1 million units in Q3 2017 from the 1.1 million units it managed in Q3 2016, and in the process, grabbing a 5 percent market share in America. It is worth noting that Motorola has not breached the top five since a couple of years ago. The resurgence of Motorola knocked TCL off the top five. TCL had hoped to build some momentum this year by acquiring the licensing rights to use the BlackBerry brand name, and the phone maker was able to introduce some new Android powered BlackBerry models in the last few months, like the BlackBerry KEYone and the BlackBerry Motion. But apparently, there was not enough buyer interest to propel TCL into the top five, at least for this year’s third quarter.