While the iPhone recently grabbed 53% of the U.S. smartphone market, it just lost 2nd place in the U.S. handset market overall to LG. The South Korean handset maker grabbed the runner-up spot on the back of strong December sales of the Optimus G. The phone sold over 1 million units during the period.
Yonhap News covered the report from Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research, which said on Sunday that LG captured 13 percent of the U.S. market last month, bumping Apple to third place for the first time since the launch of the iPhone 4S. Apple recorded 12 percent of the market, which puts both Apple and LG well behind leader Samsung at 33 percent. LG recently announced sales of 1 million units for the Optimus G worldwide, but it’s unclear if the LG-made Nexus 4 from Google was a significant contributor to the company’s rise during December.
LG Electronics had held onto the 2nd-place spot until Q3 of 2011, but dropped to 3rd after the iPhone 4S hit the market.
