iPhone 7 Plus and the iPhone 7 retained their double lead in terms of shipment volumes in Q1 of 2017

The United States is the world’s second largest smartphone market in volume terms, but in terms of revenue, the country is easily the single most important market for major vendors like Apple and Samsung.

The US smartphone market is consolidated in nature, focused on a relatively small number of flagship models from the leading vendors there, namely Apple, Samsung, and LG. These three companies held roughly three quarters of the market in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Whereas Q4 is typically the strongest quarter for Apple, Samsung usually excels in Q1 due to the launch of its new-generation Galaxy S series flagship models. This was not the case in Q1 2017, however.

Samsung was still gearing up for the launch of its Galaxy S8 and S8+ in Q1, and the new devices started shipping only in April. Even so, it would appear that the fallout from the Note 7 fiasco that had plagued the company in Q4 2016 was fairly limited in its duration, and the recovery will be further speeded up by the arrival of the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

According to Strategy Analytics’ latest research, published by the Smartphone Model Tracker (SMT) service, smartphone shipments declined by -4 percent year-on-year in the US in Q1 2017, with the top-3 best-selling models accounting for one third of the market.

The most recent generation of iPhones by Apple, the iPhone 7 Plus and the iPhone 7 retained their double lead in terms of shipment volumes in the country, but some of the older models like the iPhone 6s continued to sell fairly well, too.

Samsung managed to hold out in the top-10 list as well, with the Galaxy S7 / S7 edge and the Galaxy J3 (2016) in particular. LG had a strong quarter, with the LG V20 performing particularly well.