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