It's being reported today that in the September quarter, Samsung and Apple models represented 66% of all smartphones sold in the US. The fact that these two brands own 9 of the top 10 most-sold smartphones makes it clear why they are able to dominate sales so convincingly.     

Kantar's Carolina Milanesi further reports today that "Apple was the top brand choice for gift-giving, representing 39% of all smartphones purchased as gifts during the quarter, followed by Samsung at 29%.

Other stats in the report include: Forty-nine percent of consumers are planning to upgrade their smartphone in the next 12 months. Among them, 43% prefer Apple while 34% prefer Samsung when it comes to the brand that they are considering as their next purchase.

Among current iOS owners, 90% said they prefer Apple for their next smartphone while 5% said Samsung. Quite strikingly, among current Android owners, 58% prefer Samsung and 10% prefer Apple."

Yesterday Tamsin Timpson, strategic insight director at Kantar Asia noted that "iOS continued to grow year over year with 56% of iPhone buyers during the quarter switching from Android. And in the bigger picture, Apple's CEO told analysts during their financial conference call that Android switchers hit an all-time high by clocking in at 30% of iPhone sales.

Lastly, Milanesi notes that "Considering how strongly consumers who are planning to upgrade over the next year feel about Apple and Samsung, two things are clear: consumers see Apple and Samsung in a league of their own and that the current market duopoly is far from over."

While it's an interesting report that shows Samsung being almost running neck to neck with Apple in many ways statistically, the fact remains that Apple owns roughly 90% of the industry's profits, according to BloombergBusiness.

Further, the statistic that would be really interesting to find out is how many of these Samsung fans that are planning to upgrade to another Samsung smartphone are planning to purchase a high-end Galaxy s6 Edge flagship smartphone versus one that is in the sub $400 range. Because when Kantar talks about Apple fans upgrading, I'm sure that close to 90% are planning to buy the latest and greatest iPhone 6s or 6s-Plus. That kind of loyalty towards the higher end of the smartphone market is only something that Apple enjoys and Samsung could only dream of.

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 6pm PST and sporadically over the weekend.