Google's Android OS leads in market share, followed by Apple's iOS, RIM, Microsoft and Symbian.
Google's Android mobile
operating platform continued to capture share in the smartphone market, according
to new report from IT research firm comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR). For the
three-month period ending in November, the Android OS garnered market share of
46.9 percent, up 3.1 percentage points from the prior three-month period.
Apple maintained its No. 2
position, growing 1.4 percentage points to 28.7 percent of the smartphone
market. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion ranked third, with 16.6 percent
share, followed by Microsoft (5.2 percent) and Symbian (1.5 percent), the comScore
study shows.
The report found 91.4
million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in
November, up 8 percent from the preceding three-month period, and 234 million
Americans aged 13 and older used mobile devices.
Device manufacturer Samsung
ranked as the top OEM, with 25.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 0.3
percentage points), followed by LG, with 20.5 percent share, and Motorola, with
13.7 percent share. Apple strengthened its position in fourth place, with 11.2
percent share of total mobile subscribers (up 1.4 percentage points), while RIM
rounded out the top five, with 6.5 percent share.
In November, 72.6 percent of
U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile devices, up 2.1
percentage points, the study found. Downloaded applications were used by 44.9
percent of subscribers (up 3.3 percentage points), while browsers were used by
44.4 percent (up 2.3 percentage points). Accessing of social-networking sites
like Facebook or Twitter or blogs increased 2.1 percentage points to 33 percent
of mobile subscribers. Playing mobile games was done by 29.7 percent of the
mobile audience (up 1.2 percentage points), while 21.7 percent listened to
music on their phones (up 1.0 percentage points).
The study measured key
trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three-month average period
ending November 2011. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile
subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with
25.6 percent market share.
Mobile users are just adding
to the steady growth of social-networking sites, a recent comScore study
targeting the prominence of social-networking sites found. Facebook remains the
undisputed leader in the U.S. social-networking market, with 166 million unique
visitors in November. The average user spent 6.6 hours per person engaged on
the site during the month, an increase of 37 percent in the past year.
Meanwhile, LinkedIn and microblogging site Twitter have been jockeying over the
past several months for the No. 2 spot in audience size. In November, Twitter
eked out the second position, with 35.4 million unique visitors, just slightly
ahead of LinkedIn, with 35 million. Myspace currently owns the No. 4 position,
with 25 million visitors, but the report notes it has seen a steady decline in
audience over the past two years.
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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