Motorola has seen gains in the U.K. thanks to its low-cost Moto G smartphone, which climbed from almost nothing to 6 percent of the country's sales in six months.

"Motorola was nowhere in Europe before the Moto G launched in November last year," Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director for Kantar Worldpanel, said in a statement.

The uptick, Sunnebo said, "highlights the speed at which a quality budget phone can disrupt a market."

According to Kantar, the Moto G has attracted a very specific consumer profile in Great Britain. Almost 50 percent of owners are 16 to 24 years old, 83 percent are male, and 40 percent fall into the low-income category, earning less than £20,000 ($33,300) annually.

"Consumers are far more tech savvy than they were just a few years ago and the rising commoditization of smartphones means we increasingly rely on online views and handset cost to drive our decision making," Sunnebo said.

Based on Kantar's research, it turns out about 40 percent of Brits are heavily influenced by Internet reviews when choosing their next phone. The Moto G, which made 48 percent of its sales online, stole significant amounts of Samsung and Nokia's low- to mid-end customers.

The Moto G helped Android maintain its position as the top mobile OS in Europe with 68.9 percent market share, while Apple followed behind with 19 percent share, Kantar found. Windows Phone is third with 9.7 percent.

The big picture looks a little different in the U.S., where LG took the crown as the fastest-growing Android brand. Now topping 8 percent of the market, the company is the third-largest manufacturer in sales, due in part to the new G2 smartphone. In fact, the LG G2 earned the highest rating of any new handset in the last three months, beating the Apple iPhone 5s and Samsung Galaxy Note III.

"User advocacy is hugely important in mobile and this is great new to help LG maintain its momentum," Sunnebo said. "Selling phones is one thing, getting your buys to help you sell even more is another."

For more, see PCMag's reviews of the Motorola Moto G and LG G2, as well as the slideshow above.

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