Apple vs. Samsung Sales: Q4 2013 Strong for Apple Inc., Samsung; Data Usage Increases Compared to 2012 Figures, says NPD Group

Apple and Samsung smartphones continued to be popular choices for U.S. consumers as data for the fourth quarter of 2013 was released.

According to The NPD Group, 6 in 10 mobile phone owners owned a smartphone during the fourth quarter of 2013, which is an increase from the 52 percent from the same period in 2012.

Apple's iPhone was crowned the winner of most smartphone owners. The NPD Group noted iPhone ownership increased from 35 percent during the fourth quarter of 2012 to 42 percent a year later.

Samsung also saw an increase with their smartphone sales jumping by 4 percentage points. Samsung smartphones accounted for 26 percent of the market share, which is an increase from 22 percent during the fourth quarter of 2012.

It was bad news, however, for BlackBerry, HTC, and Motorola. The three smartphone companies encountered declines on their respective market shares during the latest fourth quarter.

With the increase of smartphones in the U.S., consumer data usage has also increased. Data usage from the 2012's fourth quarter swelled from 5.5GB to 6.6GB by the end of 2013.

"While this increase in data usage came from a variety of activities, a key driver has been the adoption of streaming music services such as Pandora and iHeart Radio," wrote The NPD Group.

The NPD Group also recorded the top five music apps on smartphones during the fourth quarter. Pandora led the ranks followed by iHeart Radio and Spotify.

The NPD Group's data was collected between September and November 2013.

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