The American phone market is very distinct from what obtains in many other countries around the world. For starters, there are fewer cell phone brands to pick from compared to many other countries.
Some of the world’s biggest phone brands are missing here. Brands like Xiaomi, OPPO, Huawei, Honor, and Sony have no official presence and almost zero market share. The only way to get a phone from one of these brands is to order it online and have them shipped into the US. You won’t find them in any phone store.
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The Top Cell Phone Brands in America
Let’s have a look at the leading cell phone brands in the United States.
Apple iPhone
By far the most popular and most iconic cell phone brand in the USA is Apple’s iPhone. Introduced in 2007 by Steve Jobs, the iPhone has gone on to become the darling boy of the US smartphone market. The iPhone has about 50% of the American smartphone market. It has proven unstoppable so far.
Samsung Galaxy
3 out of 10 Americans own a Samsung phone. That is nothing to scoff at. The iPhone may be the preference of most Americans, but phones by this Korean brand are loved by hundreds of millions of people in the USA. If the average American does not buy an iPhone, chances are they are picking up a Samsung. The American phone market is basically a duopoly between Apple and Samsung. Together, they take up about 80% of the country’s market.
Motorola (Lenovo)
Motorola phones have a fair following in the United States. Perhaps it is because once upon a time, Motorola Mobility was an American company and was the world’s largest mobile phone company. If you are new to the world of mobile, that may be strange News to you. But it is true.
Today, Motorola belongs to a Chinese company called Lenovo after a 2014 acquisition, but continues to sell its phones in the US. A smart move, too, if you ask me.
Google Pixel
Struggling for years to gain significant marketshare, Google’s Pixel brand of smartphones is finally taking a prime spot in America’s cell phone market. With a marketshare of about 2%, Pixel smartphones are the delight of a small but loyal and vocal following.
LG
While LG has officially stopped making phones, LG phones are still on sale in the country and the brand still has a sizeable marketshare just below 2% and it will drop further in the years ahead till you won’t be able to find an LG phone in the market any more. RIP LG.
Nokia
Nokia is one of the oldest phone brands in the world. After Motorola’s time as the world’s top phone company, Nokia took up that baton and ran with it for about a decade. Yes, Nokia was once the world’s most popular phone brand for 10 years. Today, it is a much smaller brand, but it still commands mindshare and marketshare here on the US and elsewhere.
The Finnish company’s marketshare in the US smartphone is small, but it sells tons of dumb phones and feature phones every year.
OnePlus
OnePlus is the only other major Chinese brand (apart from Motorola) with any significant presence in the United States. Most of the sales of OnePlus phones happen online and the brand had a cult-like following that grew around its custom user interface, OxygenOS. This appears to have dwindled a bit in recent times as the company has changed how OxygenOS looks and works.
Smaller Cell Phone Brands in America
Besides the above highly-visible brands, there are quite a number of smaller brands selling smartphones in the United States. The list includes:
- BLU
- NUU Mobile
- CAT
- TCL
- Alcatel
- Unihertz
- AGM
Way back from the days of EPOC, Symbian, Palm, PocketPC/Windows Mobile, BlackBerry/BB10, webOS, Windows Phone, Firefox, Ubuntu Touch, to Android, iOS, and KaiOS operating systems, founder of MobilityArena, Mister Mobility, has owned a few hundred smartphones and tablets, and counting.
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