According to a research firm Canalys, HTC is the top most smartphone seller in the US for the third quarter. It has been reported that they shipped 5.7 million units under their own brand and an additional 70,000 under the brand name of T-Mobile. These numbers are greater than Samsung (4.9 million) or Apple’s (4.6 million) numbers for smart phones for the third quarter.
The general word that is doing the rounds is that people postponed their purchase of Apple smart phones in wait of the iPhone 4S. Canalys analyst Chris Jones said, “Apple did not stir the usual excitement levels in the industry with the announcement of the iPhone 4S, but that was never likely to dampen volumes, due to pent up demand from the later than expected launch and the addition of Sprint as a third carrier. Early iPhone 4S sales have shown this is the case, and we expect to see a strong Q4 for Apple.”
Apple sold a record 4 million iPhone 4S in the opening weekend and this figure may not be accounted by the research firm. But, in an interesting turn of events, the battery problems that Apple’s iPhone 4S is facing may affect its sales in coming days.
In the global markets, Samsung remains the market leader as it shipped 27.3 million smart phones under its own brand gaining a market share of 23%. In regions like Asia Pacific (APAC), Latin America and Western Europe it stands as top seller of smart phones above Nokia, RIM and Apple.