Mikey Campbell
Market research firm comScore's released its latest report on Thursday and saw more of the same in the U.S. smartphone arena from August to November, with Apple and Android showing slow but steady growth while RIM continues to lose ground and Windows Phone stagnates.
comScore's MobiLens service, which reports key trends in the mobile industry by surveying more than 30,000 U.S. subscribers over the age of 13, found that Samsung remained the top handset maker in America and posted 0.3% of growth. The South Korean manufacturer of Android and feature-phones now owns over a quarter of the entire U.S. mobile market.
Apple was the only other smartphone OEM to show positive changes to its marketshare, and leveraged the successful launch of its iPhone 4S to capture another 1.4% during the three month period to end in fourth place with 11.2% of the market. LG and Motorola took the number two and three spots with 20.5% and 13.7%, respectively.
Canadian company Researtch in Motion saw its BlackBerry product line take another hit as the devices suffered the steepest loss of marketshare, dropping 0.6 points to account for a meager 6.5% of the market.
MobiLens top smartphone makers | Source: comScore
Android enjoyed an overwhelming lead in the smartphone OS space, taking nearly half of all smartphone subscribers with 46.9%. The 3.1 point change from August more than doubled the 1.4% growth Apple's iOS managed over the same period. The iPhone maker ended November with a 28.7% share.
RIM once again saw the greatest loss, with a 3.1 point blow to its already suffering marketshare as only 16.6% of subscribers were found to be BlackBerry users.
Microsoft's fledgling Windows Phone dipped to around 5% while Symbian remains at the bottom with 1.5% of the market.
MobiLens top smartphone platforms | Source: comScore
MobiLens also found that overall mobile content usage was up across the board in metrics like texting, app usage and mobile internet browsing, among others.
Nearly three out of four users, 72.6%, sent texts with their phones but usage of downloaded apps saw the biggest point change and grew 3.3% to end November with a 44.9% share.
MobiLens mobile content usage findings | Source: comScore
The latest statistics are in line with reports of strong download numbers coming from iPhone users following healthy sales of the Apple's newest iPhone 4S.
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Andrew O'Hara
William Gallagher
100 Comments
Samsung remained the top handset maker and grew 0.3%. The South Korean manufacturer of Android and feature-phones now owns over a quarter of the entire U.S. mobile market.
Cue, in 3...2...1...
"I've never ever seen anybody ever use a Samsung phone anywhere. All I ever see are iPhones".
Apple has almost 1/3rd of all smartphone handsets in the US? That's a lot for any company only selling premium smartphones.
Nearly three out of four users, 72.6%, sent texts with their phones but usage of downloaded apps saw the biggest point change and grew 3.3% to end November with a 44.9% share.
One thing not listed on that last chart... Phone calls!
/
/
/
Apple has almost 1/3rd of all smartphone handsets in the US? That's a lot for any company only selling premium smartphones.
One-third of the market is indeed impressive.
But if the truth is to be told, not only does Apple sell premium smartphones, but they also sell midrange and low-end smartphones too. We may never know for sure, but my guess is that the latter sell very, very well.
"Android enjoyed an overwhelming lead in the smartphone OS space, taking nearly half of all smartphone subscribers with 46.9%. The 3.1 point change from August more than doubled the 1.4% growth Apple's iOS managed over the same period."
That's a frightening number for Apple management. It's a clear sign that Android has overwhelmed iOS in the market place. This only reinforces my statements that iOS will be marginalized as a small niche player. High profits will not be enought to sustain the product onece Android takes 98% share. I would be shocked if that doesn't happen in 2012. I do feel bad for Apple. They pushed the technology forward as with the Mac, only to lose again just like the Mac.