Android jumps to a third of all US smartphones, overtakes RIM

by Scott Bicheno on 4 April 2011, 12:20

Tags: Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), comScore

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War of the worlds

Digital marketing intelligence outfit comScore has released its latest quarterly look at the US smartphone market, and it revealed that Android is gaining market share as rapidly as ever.

Google's mobile platform now accounts for 33 percent of all US smartphone subscribers, up from 26 percent a quarter ago. The primary casualty of this rapid growth is RIM, which is now well behind Android in the US and in danger of falling to third behind Apple.

As you can see in the table below, Android is the only mobile platform showing growth on the other side of the pond. Even Apple is pretty much treading water, implying the equilibrium for the iPhone is around a quarter of the smartphone market.

Meanwhile both Microsoft and Palm continue to lose their already shares to Android, and Android's point of equilibrium is looking in excess of 50 percent right now, meaning there won't be much left for RIM, Microsoft and HP to fight over in future.

 

Top Smartphone Platforms
3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2010
Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens

 

Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers

Nov-10

Feb-11

Point Change

Total Smartphone Subscribers

100.0%

100.0%

N/A

Google

26.0%

33.0%

7.0

RIM

33.5%

28.9%

-4.6

Apple

25.0%

25.2%

0.2

Microsoft

9.0%

7.7%

-1.3

Palm

3.9%

2.8%

-1.1

 

Moving onto total mobile phone subscriptions by vendor, that is looking a lot more stable. Motorola continues to lose share, while Apple gains. Meanwhile the relatively small drop from RIM implies it still sells a lot of non-smartphones.

 

Top Mobile OEMs
3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2010
Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens

 

Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers

Nov-10

Feb-11

Point Change

Total Mobile Subscribers

100.0%

100.0%

N/A

Samsung

24.5%

24.8%

0.3

LG

20.9%

20.9%

0.0

Motorola

17.0%

16.1%

-0.9

RIM

8.8%

8.6%

-0.2

Apple

6.6%

7.5%

0.9

 

Lastly here's a table of mobile content consumption. All categories increased modestly, implying Americans are using their phones increasingly to consume content.

 

Mobile Content Usage
3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2010
Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens

 

Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers

Nov-10

Feb-11

Point Change

Total Mobile Subscribers

100.0%

100.0%

N/A

Sent text message to another phone

67.1%

68.8%

1.7

Used browser

35.3%

38.4%

3.1

Used downloaded apps

33.4%

36.6%

3.2

Accessed social networking site or blog

23.5%

26.8%

3.3

Played Games

22.6%

24.6%

2.0

Listened to music on mobile phone

15.0%

17.5%

2.5

 



HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Strange not to see HTC in the vendor list or are they not that popular in the USA. More than half of the people in my office own a HTC device now. Mostly Desire and Desire Hd owners.
Brewster0101
Strange not to see HTC in the vendor list or are they not that popular in the USA. More than half of the people in my office own a HTC device now. Mostly Desire and Desire Hd owners.

Remember the vendor list is for all handsets, not just smartphones.
Brewster0101
Strange not to see HTC in the vendor list or are they not that popular in the USA. More than half of the people in my office own a HTC device now. Mostly Desire and Desire Hd owners.

I'd agree with that statement. There is also a few Android Samsungs and few iphones and then me with an SE! The other half all have feature phones as pointed out.
cheesemp
I'd agree with that statement. There is also a few Android Samsungs and few iphones and then me with an SE! The other half all have feature phones as pointed out.
+1 on this, heck I was “forced” to buy a (2nd hand) X10 Mini Pro for a relative just to try and even up the numbers a little. :o

Sometime think that SonyEricsson phone owners must feel a little like the 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn. :Oops:

Don't suppose anyone has similar figures to these US-based ones for Europe - I suspect that the results will be considerably different.