Samsung might be having a hard time in markets like India and China due to its lack of a solid strategy for the burgeoning budget smartphone segment, but over in the U.S., the Korean manufacturer managed to strengthen its foothold in the second quarter of 2014. According to the latest comScore survey, Samsung's smartphone market share rose to 28.6 percent, a 1.6 percent rise from Q1 that has brought the company closer to Apple's share of 42.1 percent. Apple also managed a 0.7 percent growth in the same period, while LG, Motorola and HTC saw their market share erode slightly as they hung on to the third, fourth and fifth positions.
Samsung's increased market share can mainly be attributed to the launch of the Galaxy S5, which released on all major carriers in the U.S. as has been the tradition for all of the company's flagships in recent years, and the upcoming Galaxy Note 4 will no doubt provide further growth. As far as operating systems are concerned, Android continued to lead with 51.9 percent share at the end of June, followed by Apple at 42.1 percent. Windows Phone, Symbian and BlackBerry brought up the rear, with 3.4, 2.4 and a (measly) 0.1 percent share respectively.
