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Apple overtakes Android in U.S. smartphone sales

For the first time in three years, more people are buying iPhones than Android devices
Apple's iPhone surpasses Android in sales 02:47

Thanks to the incredible popularity of iPhone 6, Apple's domestic smartphone sales have edged ahead of Android's for the first time in three years.

It's not by much - Apple took 47.7 percent of sales to Android's 47.6 percent - but it was yet another check in the "W" column in what was an all around banner for the company in 2014.

"I don't think it's a huge surprise. This is like the perfect storm for Apple," CNET Senior Editor Jeff Bakalar told CBS News. "They have a product for every demographic. They are filling every void in the market right now."

Bakalar credited the shift to the success of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: "It's unprecedented how successful those two phones have been. That is probably why we are seeing a spike right now."

He added that Android is also struggling against a less streamlined connection to consumers, who buy Android handsets from a number of different manufacturers and are often running different versions of the operating system.

"The problem with Android is that the all the phones that run Android are fragmented. Some of them run an old version of Android and very few of them run the latest version of Android," he said. "They need some sort of consistency in that area of their product. That is what is frustrating a lot of people."

Apple, in contrast, has "one line to the consumer," which makes rolling out products to the market easier and - apparently - more effective.

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