Android hit 31.2 percent U.S. smartphone market share, passing Research in Motion for the first month of the year, according to comScore.
Google's
Android operating system passed Research in Motion's Blackberry platform to
capture the top U.S. smartphone slot with 31.2 percent market share through
January, said comScore.
While Android
gained almost 3 percent share from comScore's
December count,
RIM's Blackberry fell to 30.4 percent share from 31.6 percent.
The statistics
underline a dismal holiday selling season and start to 2011 for RIM, which has
steadily bled market share to lose over 5 percent share since October, when the
researcher
counted
it at 35.8 percent.
Update: Apple's iOS,
which appeared poised to challenge RIM's mantle before Android stormed the
charts to take over at No. 1, accounted for 24.7 percent share, up only .01 percent from the prior period.
The company
shipped 16.24 million iPads through the holiday quarter and has spent a lot of
time the last few months revving up its iPad 2 tablet, which launches March 11.
At RIM's
current rate of decline, Apple, which CEO Steve Jobs
said
last week has sold more than 100 million iPhones since 2007, could top RIM by
the time it launches its iPhone 5 this summer. The iPhone 5 is
expected
to be fitted with near field communication technology to enable mobile
payments.
While RIM
fades, Microsoft Windows Phone 7 continues to fail to make an impression in the
smartphone market. ComScore said Windows accounted for 8 percent market share,
down from 8.4 percent in December, 9 percent from November and 9.7 percent
through October.
Android's rise
on the back of its 100-plus handsets and Apple's continued success with its
steadily improving iPhone stem from solid hardware and cutting-edge software
functionality and applications. RIM has lost its magic, and Microsoft can't
seem to find any-which is why its $1 billion
partnership
with Nokia is so important.
RIM is
suffering from both a branding and development crisis.
The company
watched
its chief marketing officer depart before its PlayBook tablet launched and
weathered
blistering
criticism about its Blackberry App World development process.
There is hope
yet for RIM and Microsoft, as people are still snapping up smartphones. Some
65.8 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones through January, up from 63.2
million through December.
Even so, until
Nokia launches Windows Phone 7 handsets in 2012 and RIM unveils some new
handsets capable of rivaling the current Android and iPhone gadgets, it's not
clear what these companies can do to burnish their platforms.
Email
Print
