Similar to what Chitika observed within the UK marketplace, smartphone market volatility in the U.S. and Canada is relatively low from a brand perspective. This should be expected, as North America represents one of the world's more mature smartphone ecosystems, with recent figures pointing to more than 66% and 55% of mobile users owning a smartphone in the U.S. and Canada, respectively. For some comparison, recent estimates point to smartphone penetration being close to 31% globally.

Chitika's study shows "that Apple continues to drive the majority of U.S. and Canadian smartphone Web traffic, and it's unlikely that Apple will be ceding its first-place position anytime soon. Even after posting a slight 0.2 percentage point loss since February, at 52.3%, Apple's share is nearly double that of second-place Samsung (26.4%).

Moving away from the biggest players, Microsoft and HTC have hinted at imminent debuts of new higher-end Windows phone devices. The reception of these new smartphones should provide some good clues as to the degree of success Windows Phone will have in North America after surpassing BlackBerry earlier this year.

To provide a view into how North American smartphone usage breaks down by brand, Chitika Insights analyzed hundreds of millions of U.S. and Canadian smartphone-based online ad impressions generated within the Chitika Ad Network from July 1 through 28, 2014. The historical data were drawn from impressions observed from February 1 through 28, 2014. The results were then graphed alongside each other for comparative purposes.

For more Apple stats, see our archives.

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