Android Creeps up to Owning Half the U.S. Smartphone OS Market in January

According to comScore’s latest MobiLens data, Google’s Android mobile OS got even closer to owning half of the U.S. smartphone OS market in January.

In terms of original equipment manufacturers (OEM), Samsung finished the three-month average period ending in January with 25.4 percent of the mobile OEM market, down 0.1 percentage point from its 25.5 percent share in the preceding three-month period ending in October.

LG followed with 19.7 percent of the market, down 0.9 points. Motorola was third with 13.2 percent of the market, down 0.4 points. Apple trailed with 12.8 percent of the market, up 2.0 percentage points. RIM rounded out the top five with 6.6 percent of the market, unchanged from the previous period.

Google’s Android led all smartphone platforms with 48.6 percent of the U.S. market in the three-month period ending in January, up 2.3 percentage points from the previous period. Apple’s iOS followed with 29.5 percent of the market, up 1.4 points.

RIM’s BlackBerry was third with 15.2 percent of the market, down 2.0 percentage points. Microsoft followed with 4.4 percent of the market, down 1.0 point. Symbian rounded out the list of the top five smartphone platforms with 1.5 percent of the market, down 0.1 percentage points.

According to comScore, there were 101.3 million U.S. smartphone subscribers in January, up 13 percent since October.

When it came to mobile content usage, 74.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers sent text messages to another phone during the three-month period ending in January, up 2.8 percentage points. The second most popular form of mobile content usage was using downloaded apps, which got a 48.6 percent response, up 4.8 points.

Using a browser got a 48.5 percent response, up 4.5 percentage points from October. Meanwhile, accessing a social networking site or blog got a 35.7 percent response, up 3.4 points.

Playing games got a 31.8 percent response in January, up 2.7 points. Listening to music on a mobile phone got a 24.5 percent response, up 3.3 percentage points.

According to comScore, for the three-month average period ending in January, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices.

Source:

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2012/3/comScore_Reports_January_2012_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share