Apple beats Google in US smartphone market

Apple overtook Google 's Android to become the leading smartphone platform in the US in the fourth quarter of 2011 , thanks to strong demand for its latest iPhone model , a study said on Wednesday.
In October-December quarter last year, Apple 's share of the US smartphone market doubled from a year earlier to 44.9 per cent , while Android' s share fell from 50 percent to 44.8 per cent in the same period, according to market research firm Kantar Worldpanel.
While Android retains global smartphone crown,Apple is now growing at a faster rate, driven by the launch of its latest iPhone 4S model in October last year, Kantar Worldpanel noted.
"Overall, Apple sales are now growing at a faster rate than Android across the nine countries we cover," Xinhua reported quoting Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at the research firm.
Apple posted better-than-expected quarterly results on Tuesday, saying it sold a record-breaking 37.04 million units of iPhone in total in the fourth quarter last year, an increase of 128 per cent over the year-ago period.