• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, March 18, 2013

The growth of smartphones and tablets in the last three months has pushed the number of connected devices in the U.S. past the half a billion mark, according to new data from NPD Group. PCs remain the most common connected device, but for the first time, they’re outnumbered by smartphones and tablets.

The battle for the mobile landscape is boiling down to a one-one match between Apple and Samsung. The latter just upped the ante in the smartphone war with its release of the Galaxy S 4, which many experts see as supplanting the iPhone as best handset on the market.

“This is not to say that there aren’t high-end innovative phones being released by other OEMs, but the marketing and product development expenditures of these two leaders are making it increasingly challenging for other OEMs to take advantage of the mobile migration to smartphones,” stated John Buffone, director, devices, NPD Connected Intelligence, in a blog post today.

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