iPhone gaining over Android in US, two-thirds of iOS users on Apple Maps

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Breaking all of the preconceived notions about the cyclicality of the iPhone, a new survey shows Apple’s iOS gaining on Google’s Android and the embattled BlackBerry during a three-month period ended August 2013. The iPhone gained 1.3 percentage points ranking as the top smartphone vendor in the United States with a cool 40.7 percent share of the nation’s smartphone subscribers.

Although Google’s Android  led with a dominating 51.6 percent share, its slice of the smartphone platform market actually shrank by 0.8 percentage points. What’s really interesting about Apple’s growth is that iOS outsold Android without the new iPhones. The full breakdown is after the break…

Together, Android and the iPhone took more than 92 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, comScore data shows. iOS went from 39.2 percent in May 2013 to 40.7 percent share in August. At the same time, Google’s Android declined, going from 52.4 in May to 51.6 percent of the U.S. smartphone platform share in August.

In the meantime, BlackBerry lost 0.8 percentage points in subscribers share and Microsoft’s Windows Phone gained a meager 0.2 percentage point share.

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In terms of individual phone vendors Apple emerged victorious, its iPhone accounting for 40.7 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers, up 1.5 percentage points from May. Even without the new iPhones, Apple zoomed past second-ranked Samsung which grabbed just 24.3 percent market share despite the launch of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone.

HTC  (7.4 percent), Motorola (6.9 percent) and LG (6.7 percent) rounded up the top five US phone vendors, though neither was able to grow its share compared to the three-month period ended May 2013.

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In terms of mobile apps, Apple’s iOS Maps grabbed a 27.5 percent penetration compared to 46.1 percent for Google Maps.

As noted by AppleInsider, that means iOS Maps in its first year on the market has managed to achieve “40 percent of Google’s total audience reach, despite only being available on iOS, which comScore says represents 40.7 percent of the U.S. market”.

Based on comScores figures, at least two thirds of iOS users are continuing to use Apple’s Maps, while half of all smartphone users are either not using Google Maps or not using maps at all. If a significant proportion of iOS users simply don’t use maps, that means Apple Maps has even greater penetration among those that do.

In any case, the data does not support the idea that a significantly large proportion of iOS users have switched from Apple Maps to a competing product.

Facebook recorded a 75.7 percent reach among smartphone users on both platforms, followed  by Google Search (53.9 percent), Google Play (53.2 percent), YouTube (52.8 percent), Google Maps (46.1 percent) and Gmail (44.3 percent).

Google Maps 1.1 for iOS (teaser 001)

According to comScore, about 145 million people in the United States owned smartphones during the three months ending in August, a three-percent increase since May.

The figure represents a mobile market penetration of 60.8 percent.

Of course, comScore’s data doesn’t take into account the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, which went on sale in the United States and ten major international markets on September 20. Apple confirmed opening weekend sales of the new iPhones hit nine million units.

Chart top of post: Brian Loftus / Fortune.