Nick Fernandez / Android Authority
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TL;DR
- Previous data claimed Google increased its market share in North America by almost threefold.
- New data suggests that the company’s market share had a big drop in the following days.
- However, it appears that Google has been able to regain some ground since then.
Earlier this month, it appeared that Google was gaining serious ground on Apple and Samsung for US market share. We were a bit skeptical of the numbers, but the data suggested positive growth by Pixel. New data now suggests that those numbers may have indeed been too good to be true.
Stat site Statcounter released some surprising statistics at the beginning of November. That data suggested Google may have nearly tripled its smartphone market share in North America between the months of September and October. Specifically, the site’s data claimed Google went from 4.6% to around 12.9%.
When we reported on this story, we added the caveat that this information may not be fully accurate. This is because, as Statcounter points out on its website, this data does not come from direct sales or user data. Instead, the site uses tracking code “installed on more than 1.5 million sites globally” to gather its information. With a sample size that large, there was likely some truth to Google cutting into Apple and Samsung’s lead.
Going a little more granular (day-by-day), Statcounter’s data claims that Google’s share in the market started dropping around November 19 and went as low as 5.48%. However, the most current data shows that Google has since rebounded from that dip back up to 10.58%. So there was a little slip, but the Mountain View-based firm managed to recover most of what it lost.
Zooming back out and looking at the monthly stats again (above), Google appears to have dropped about four percentage points from October to November. The company now sits at 8.55%, while Samsung’s and Apple’s market share are 23.81% and 55.69%, respectively.
Something suspicious here is that Apple’s movement almost mirrors the exact opposite of Google’s in a short span of time. At the same time, Samsung’s market share has hardly flinched.
As we said before, Statcounter’s data may not be 100% accurate. But it does suggest Google is moving in a positive direction in the market.