Samsung Takes Lead From Apple in US Smartphone Market: Counterpoint

According to the research firm, Samsung accounted for 28.8 percent smartphone sales in the month of March compared to 23 percent market share of Apple which followed second. It added that strong demand for the latest Samsung Galaxy S7 helped Samsung regain the top spot in the US market.

The market research firm (via Business Korea) suggests that Samsung's new premium smartphones received better response from consumers compared to the Samsung Galaxy S6 last year. The South Korean company's lead was also credited to slow sales of the new iPhone 6s.

Samsung and Apple were followed by LG which was at third position and had 17.1 percent market share in the US. The research firm believes that the market share of LG would increase as LG G5 flagship sales figures didn't reflect in March.

Some of the other smartphone vendors in the top list were ZTE, which stood at fourth and had 6.6 percent market share, followed by Alcatel at fifth with a 4.5 percent market share. Chinese handset vendor Huawei also featured in the top smartphone vendors list in the US though had just 1 percent market share, according to Counterpoint Research.

In terms of global figures, Samsung led the smartphone market by volume as per Counterpoint Research. Samsung with a market share of 22.8 percent led the smartphone shipments while Apple stood second with 14.9 percent share mostly credited to declining iPhone shipments.

Back in January, another market research firm market research firm Strategy Analytics had claimed that Samsung in the last quarter of 2015 managed to retain its lead over Apple to remain the top smartphone vendor citing the shipment data.