THE IPHONE 5 EFFECT IS OVER: Apple Trailing Android In U.S. Market Share Again

Apple is now trailing Android in the U.S. market share by eight percentage points, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech data for the three months ending in February.

This might seem like blah news since most firms tracking smartphone marketshare say the iPhone is getting trounced by Android. But Kantar was the only firm that regularly churns out market share reports that said Apple was leading Android.

As recently as January, Kantar had Apple leading in U.S. market share with 51.2 percent of the market share.

Today, it reports Apple has 43.5 percent of the U.S. market, and Android has 51.2 percent of the market. Kantar analyst Mary-Ann Parlato says Android gained share thanks to price drops on Samsung phones.

Kantar gets its data from a continuous poll of mobile phone owners. It tracks what people are buying.

Apple has managed to do just fine without ever leading in market share, so there's no reason to get overly worried.

However, Apple saw a huge pop when the iPhone 5 was released, which helped it take the top spot in the U.S. for a short while. Now that the pop is over, it's rapidly losing market share.

Apple's next iPhone isn't expected until August, and when it does come, it might just be a slightly better version of the iPhone 5. As a result, we're not expecting Apple's share of sales to increase for a long time.

At some point, as Apple fights for growth, this becomes a problem. Either it needs a more exciting new phone, or it needs a lower priced phone. Or, an entirely new product to fuel the next leg of growth. From an investors' perspective, it would probably be nice to get all three.