New analytics data from ComScore has good news for Apple on two fronts: the research firm believes far more users in the US are giving Apple Music a tryout than has been previously reported, and that even in the quarter before the expected new model rollout, Apple's iPhone 6 line is still gaining share in the US, now largely taking it from drops in chief rival and Android flagship company Samsung rather than from smaller rivals as it had previously.
Previous reports (including one
from Apple itself) had suggested 11 million regular users of the new Apple Music subscription service, but ComScore believes 44 million US users gave it a spin in its first month -- the survey covers April to July, but Apple Music only became available on June 30. Its unclear if ComScore is counting users of the paid services or just the app generally, though at present nobody is incurring any charges, as even first-day adopters have their trial running through September 30.
The app continues to manage iTunes libraries as it always has, including some new free features such as Beats 1 and the Connect social service. There is also a new subscription service that will cost $10 per month (or $15 per month for a family account of up to six individual users) that provides streaming access to nearly 100 percent of Apple's entire iTunes catalog, even for offline listening.
The rush of new users to the app was, however, enough to propel it into the top 15 most popular smartphone apps across all platforms, coming in at number 14. Facebook and Google apps for both Android and iOS dominated the top six positions, but streaming service Pandora was in seventh place, thanks to its well-established user base and their tendency to leave the service on all day for music listening. The two Apple-specific apps were the Maps program (at number 11) and Apple Music.
On the overall smartphone front, Apple increased its US market share by 1.1 percent to 44.2 percent in July, with Samsung losing 1.3 percent to 27.3 percent. Most of the other main competitors held steady or lost share, though LG was able to increase its US presence by 0.3 percent, while HTC continued to wither in fifth place with a loss of 0.2 percent share, falling to 3.5 percent.
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