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Android shows significant growth in last three months, led by success of Moto G and LG G2

Screen Shot 2014-03-31 at 12.30.20

Kantar Worldpanel has released its latest report on smartphone marketshare for the last three months. Android share is up significantly compared to a year ago, with Kantar calling out two devices in particular for their contributions to this increase: the Moto G and the LG G2.

In the US, Kantar says that Android has a 55% share of smartphone OS sales share, up from 51.1% in February 2013, an increase of 3.9 percentage points. This compares favourably to iOS’ performance, which fell 4.9 points year-on-year to a 38.7% share. Incidentally, Windows Phone was the only other platform to grow in the US, rising from 4.1% in 2013 to 5.3%.

LG is the fastest growing Android manufacturer, now topping 8 percent of the market to become the third largest manufacturer in sales. After relying on sales of its mid-range Optimus phones, Kantar now says that the majority of LG’s marketshare comes from the G2.

Sunnebo comments: “The LG G2 marks a significant change in direction for LG, now aiming squarely towards the top end of the market. Customer recommendation figures for the past three months show the LG G2 has the highest rating of any new handset at 9.2 out of 10, followed by the iPhone 5S at 9.1 and Samsung Galaxy Note III at 9.0. User advocacy is hugely important in mobile and this is great news to help LG maintain its momentum. Selling phones is one thing, getting your buyers to help you sell even more is another.”

In the EU5 index (the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain), the situation is similar. Android reached 68.9% marketshare (an increase of 2.1 percentage points year-on-year), whereas iOS fell 2.1 points to take 19% share of the market in February 2014. Like in the US, Windows performed well — rising from 6.3% to 9.7%.

Kantar calls out the Moto G in particular for its success in the United Kingdom.

Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, comments: “Motorola was nowhere in Europe before the Moto G launched in November last year, but the new model has since boosted the manufacturer to 6% of British sales. It highlights the speed at which a quality budget phone can disrupt a market. The same pattern can be seen in France with Wiko, which has 8.3% share, and Xiaomi in China with 18.5%.”

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