Apple, Samsung Rule U.S.Smartphones Market in Q1

The feature phone isn't totally dead in the United States but it's getting there, according to market researcher Counterpoint.

The research firm published its Market Monitor quarterly tracker report Thursday, offering up the news that smartphones accounted for more than 87 percent of all handset shipments in the U.S. by the end of the first quarter of 2014.

Of course, that means that some people are still stocking features phones and a few companies, like Samsung, are still benefitting from the non-total saturation of the market with smartphones.

Samsung was the biggest shipper of handsets in the U.S. in the first quarter, according to Counterpoint, but not the most prolific shipper of smartphones. That would be Apple, which of course only sells smartphones.

At any rate, the two consumer electronics can quibble about who's bigger on the margins. Together, Samsung and Apple accounted for two-thirds of all first-quarter smartphone shipments in the U.S. market, Counterpoint reported.

Meanwhile, quite a ways down from those lofty heights, there was a fight for a prominent also-ran spot in the U.S. smartphone market, with TCL-Alcatel passing Huawei to grab the No. 5 market share position, according the research firm.

In terms of operating systems shipped on smartphones in the first quarter, Counterpoint reported that Google's Android remained king with a 59 percent share of the market, Apple's iOS remained in the mid-30s, and Microsoft's Windows saw a bit of nice growth but still accounted for just under 4 percent of unit shipments.

The first quarter also saw inexorable takeover of the U.S. market by LTE-equipped phones take another step forward. Some 75 percent of all smartphones shipped in the quarter were LTE phones, with Apple and Samsung combining to ship more than 70 percent of them, according to Counterpoint.

There was also some jockeying for position among the big carriers in the quarter. T-Mobile passed Sprint to become the third-largest smartphone volume buyer among the carriers, trailing only Verizon and AT&T, the report stated.

As for carrier brand affiliation, both Verizon and AT&T remained strong Apple shops, with iPhones accounting for more than half of the smartphone shipments to those carriers. Sprint saw a more distributed breakdown in first-quarter unit shipments from the two giants of the smartphone-making industry, with 36 percent coming from Apple and 30 percent from Samsung.

Among major carriers, only T-Mobile saw a majority of its smartphone shipments come from Samsung, which accounted for 38 percent to Apple's 24 percent. Counterpoint also noted the South Korean company's strong position with regional carriers throughout the U.S.