In late November, research company Kantar Worldpanel reported that strong debut of the iPhone 5 allowed Apple to retake the lead in the U.S. sales from Android. Over the August-October timeframe, Apple's share of the market was assessed at 48.1% compared to Android's share of 46.7%.
At the time, the company predicted that IOS share would continue to increase and Apple would hit a record high for market share on the strength of iPhone 5 sales over the following two 12-week periods.
Apple began construction of a new operational center covering an area of 1 million square feet in Austin, Texas, which will contain nearly 3600 new jobs.