ComScore: Android has nearly 50% of US market, iOS grows too

08 March, 2012

ComScore released their regularly scheduled report on the mobile phone market in the US - the big news is that the number of smartphones in the country has crossed the 100 million mark for the first time.

The report covers the three month period that ended this January, over which there were no position shuffling among the Top 5 phone makers. Samsung remains on top with just over a quarter of the market, followed by LG, Motorola, Apple and RIM. Apple is the only company whose share grew (by 2 percentage points), RIM's share remained steady and the rest lost some share.

Top Mobile OEMs
3 Month Avg. Ending Jan. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Oct. 2011
Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone) Ages 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
Oct-11 Jan-12 Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers 100.0% 100.0% N/A
Samsung 25.5% 25.4% -0.1
LG 20.6% 19.7% -0.9
Motorola 13.6% 13.2% -0.4
Apple 10.8% 12.8% 2.0
RIM 6.6% 6.6% 0.0

This table includes feature phones, while the next focuses on smartphone OSes. Android is the undeniable champ and it grew the most, closing in on the 50% mark. Apple's iOS grew too, but all the other OSes lost share. Microsoft's position isn't very rosy - they went from 5.4% to 4.4%.

Top Smartphone Platforms
3 Month Avg. Ending Jan. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Oct. 2011
Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
Oct-11 Jan-12 Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers 100.0% 100.0% N/A
Google 46.3% 48.6% 2.3
Apple 28.1% 29.5% 1.4
RIM 17.2% 15.2% -2.0
Microsoft 5.4% 4.4% -1.0
Symbian 1.6% 1.5% -0.1

More and more US phone owners are using their phones for more than just calls - nearly three fourths of them text, about half browse the web and use apps and a third play games and use social networks.

Mobile Content Usage
3 Month Avg. Ending Jan. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Oct. 2011
Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone) Ages 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
Oct-11 Jan-12 Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers 100.0% 100.0% N/A
Sent text message to another phone 71.8% 74.6% 2.8
Used downloaded apps 43.8% 48.6% 4.8
Used browser 44.0% 48.5% 4.5
Accessed social networking site or blog 32.3% 35.7% 3.4
Played Games 29.2% 31.8% 2.6
Listened to music on mobile phone 21.2% 24.5% 3.3

Interestingly only about a quarter use their phones for music (24.5%, up 3.3 percentage points), even though we've seen a number of music-focused phones hit the market recently.

Source


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Reader comments

  • Anonymous
  • 12 Mar 2012
  • IWP

Arrogant arent ya?i hope someone slap the heck out of ya before being so cocky talking about their family.he DIDNT even mention about ur family,why are u being pathetic.grow up =.=

  • AnonD-45703
  • 10 Mar 2012
  • n7j

Mr. Elop ... I don't really feel honored. :) I was just giving worldwide numbers because the US ones are so different. But thanks a lot for that great article. It's more or less in line with what I was already thinking. Nokia is the living proof ...

  • Anonymous
  • 10 Mar 2012
  • g5m

do you think that only US is on earth?? if you measure other countries also then you will get your HTC fanboys

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