Android May Have Peaked in the United States

After a long period of sustained growth, Android's market share in the U.S. smartphone market has recently taken a slight hit. According to recent comScore data, Android's market share dropped to 51.7 percent in the three-month period ending February 2013. This marks the third consecutive decline of Android's market share since hitting a peak of 53.7 percent in the three months ending November 2012.

Google's mobile operating system is still the number one smartphone platform by a relatively comfortable margin, but Apple's iOS has regained some lost ground in the past few months. Android developers probably won't be too worried by this short-term trend though. The imminent release of Samsung's new flagship model, the Galaxy S4, will likely re-accelerate Android's growth in the U.S. and elsewhere. Moreover, Apple’s momentum is likely to slow down in anticipation of the next iPhone refresh which isn’t expected until later this year.