Samsung Electronics Co.’s smartphones accounted for more than 30 percent of the North American market last year, data showed Thursday, a significant improvement from the 4.7 percent in 2007.

The South Korean tech giant grabbed a 31.6 percent share of the North American market by shipping 44 million units last year, the data compiled by Strategy Analytics showed. It marked the first time for the number to surpass 30 percent in that region.

Samsung’s market share in North America grew nearly twofold in 2011 on-year to 17.6 percent and jumped again to 26.6 percent in 2012.

Following Samsung’s growth, its global rival Apple Inc. suffered a weakened foothold at its home turf, with the U.S. tech firm’s market share falling 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier to 36.3 percent.

The U.S. smartphone leader sold some 50.7 million smartphones at home, up 4.2 million units from a year earlier. Its gap with Samsung came to 4.7 percentage points last year, plunging from 11 percentage points posted a year earlier.

LG Electronics Inc., South Korea’s No. 2 smartphone maker, maintained its position as the third player in North America by selling 12 million units last year to account for 8.6 percent of the market, placing the combined market share of Samsung and LG above that of Apple. (Yonhap)