Motorola, BlackBerry OS Lead U.S. Handset Use, Says Report

Motorola smartphones and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices were the most popular handsets among U.S. mobile subscribers from November 2009 through Feb. 10, 2010, according to a new report from comScore.
The April 5 report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), smartphone platforms and the mobile activities conducted by U.S. subscribers age 13 years and older-which, in a three-month average ending in February, totaled 234 million Americans.
During that time, Motorola remained the top OEM, though, like Nokia, it shed market share points to the benefit of RIM and, though to a smaller degree, Samsung.
In the quarter ending in February, Motorola held 22.3 percent market share, down from 24.2 percent, followed by LG with a consistent 21.7 percent and Samsung with 21.4 percent, up slightly from 21 percent.
LG, working for the role of little OEM that could, announced in January that by 2012 it wants to be one of the top two mobile device manufacturers worldwide.
Nokia-the worldwide leader-followed in fourth position, with 8.7 percent of U.S. market share, down from 9.3 percent the quarter before, and RIM held 8.2 percent of the field, up from 6.5 percent.
When it came to smartphone platforms, however, RIM hustled to the front of the line, commanding 42.1 percent market share in the quarter ending in February, up from 40.8 percent the quarter before. A bit farther back, in second position, was Apple, with 25.4 percent market share, down just one-tenth of a point from the quarter before.
Microsoft followed closely in third place, with 15.1 percent market share, down from 19.1 percent, with a quickly growing Google rising to fourth position, jumping to 9 percent in the present quarter, from 3.8 percent three months earlier. Palm, meanwhile, fell to fifth position, with 5.4 percent of the market, versus 7.2 percent the quarter earlier.
RIM presented a strong fourth quarter and fiscal year 2010 on March 31, announcing $4.08 billion in revenue for the quarter and $14.95 billion for the year, which was up 35 percent from a year earlier.
While BlackBerry use is rising in the United States, its popularity is also growing abroad. During RIM’s recent quarterly report, Senior Vice President Adele Ebbs said that 48 percent of the company’s revenue came from outside North America.
As for mobile content usage, the percentage of Americans going about each task rose in every category, according to comScore.
“In an average month during the December through February 2010 time period, 64.0 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.9 percentage points versus three months prior,” according to comScore. “Browsers were used by 29.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.4 percentage points), while subscribers who used downloaded applications made up 27.5 percent (up 1.8 percentage points).”
The biggest percentage change-coinciding more or less neatly with the increase of browser use-was the number of mobile subscribers who accessed social-networking sites and blogs. While 15.1 percent of subscribers did so during the previous quarter, that number was up to 18 percent in the quarter ending February 2010.
The use of mobile browsers is expected to continue to rise. In a March report from Gartner, highlighting 10 mobile technologies that are expected to majorly impact enterprises through 2011, the research firm wrote that by 2011, 85 percent of the handsets shipping globally will include some form of browser.