The key driver of the company’s success, despite the rising competition from Samsung Electronics, has always been the Apple’s market share in the US. Although, Samsung also seems to be gaining market share in the US as well, its gains cannot rival that of the iPhone maker. NPD has released its latest report, according to which, there has been a 42% rise in iPhone ownership in the fourth quarter of 2013. As compared to the same quarter of 2012, there has been a definite increase as it was only 35% back then. 7 percentage points have ben gained by Apple Inc., which offer a greater advantage compared to Samsung’s growth of 4% in the same period.

LG is the only other smartphone maker that was able to gain market share in the US on a year over year basis. However, there was only a small gain seen by the company. Apart from that, the rest of the top manufacturers in the smartphone market only saw a decline in market share, as stated by the NPD report. Another report was revealed by ComScore that shows that about 40.6% market share were held by Apple Inc. in December. With 24.1% share, Samsung was able to retain the second position in the smartphone market.

Apple’s iPhone 5S, its latest iPhone version saw a very warm response from the smartphone owners in the US. Another research firm had revealed that the biggest shares in sales were grabbed by the iPhone 5S, as far as the US market is concerned. Buyers have been convinced to stay away from the lower-priced iPhone 4S and 5C with the availability of the iPhone 5S. It was also reported on January 14th that the largest share of iPhone sales in the last quarter of 2013 was taken by the iPhone 5S and it amounted to 59%. In comparison, 27% of sales were contributed by the iPhone 5C and 14% by the iPhone 4S.

While Apple Inc.’s CEO Tim Cook is looking forward to big plans in this year, it has been speculated by analysts that the stock could reach $1000 after it had managed to reach the milestone of $705 in September 2012. However, the Cupertino-California giant has lost steam after hitting its all-time high. Nonetheless, since the company launched new products in 2013, there is a possibility that it is approaching a high stock price that may just surpass the previous high that had been achieved.

It is believed by some analysts that the share price of Apple Inc. would reach $1000 in a period of two years. It was predicted by some analysts previously that the company’s share price may hit the 4 digit mark by the end of 2014. They are of the opinion that the company has gotten skilled in upselling and cross-selling its products. They believe that Apple will be able to grow its market share once the company is able to penetrate China. It will start with the iPhones and then introduce other products in the Chinese market as well.

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