HTC takes the lead in the US smart phone market

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HTC may have beaten Apple to take the top spot among smartphones in the US this summer, Canalys estimated Monday. The Android-first company reportedly delivered 5.7 million smartphones to the country, leaving a wide gap between itself and Apple’s 4.6 million iPhones. Samsung also just moved past, knocking Apple to third place after its hardware climbed to 4.9 million.

As with other recent studies, the reversal is attributed to the wait for the iPhone 4S. Apple was expected to make an almost immediate comeback and has shipped four million new iPhones worldwide, at least a million of which were from AT&T. Apple might get also get to see how loyal Verizon Android users are now that the first Motorola Droid owners are leaving their contracts and qualify for upgrades, researchers said.

Most of HTC’s advantage came from the sheer ubiquity of high-end models, Canalys said. Phone with 4G or pseudo-4G, such as the Thunderbolt, Evo 3D, Sensation, and Inspire 4G, are available on all the major carriers. Most also have multiple lower-end HTC devices.