Earlier this morning, comScore released their quarterly report of the U.S. smartphone market for the three month period ending July 31. The report measures market share across three segments of the mobile market: manufacturers, platform (operating system), and service use.
Manufacturers
When it comes to cell phone manufacturers for both smartphones and non-smartphones, Samsung continued to hold the lead with 25.5%, up 1% from the period ending April 2011. LG and Motorola round out the top three, with 20.9% (+0.0%) and 14.1% (-1.5%) respectively. Apple found itself in the 4th spot with a 9.5% share (+1.2%), and struggling RIM dropped to 7.6% (-0.6%).
Sadly, comScore did not report the market share for only smartphone manufacturers, which is what we as Android users are really interested in. It is, however, nice to see manufacturers that make Android smartphones in the top 3 spots overall.
Smartphone Operating Systems
When it comes to the smartphone landscape, there was some good news for Android in the July report. As a platform, Android saw significant growth from April to July. Android can now be found on 42% of all smartphones in the U.S., up a commanding 5.4% share since April.
Apple, the obvious #2, also saw a modest 1% increase from April to July, making up 27% of the mobile OS landscape. Android and Apple’s gains come at the direct expense of RIM (21.7%, -4%), Microsoft (5.7%, -1%), and Symbian (1.9%, -0.4%).
Judging from this information, consumers are continuing to shed Blackberry’s for sleeker Android and iOS devices, and Microsoft and Symbian continue to struggle to gain relevance in a crowded mobile market.
Phone Usage
When it comes to actual usage (again both smartphones and non-smartphones), July’s comScore report reinforces what we all already know; as consumers continue to move from non-smartphones to smartphones, they simply are using their devices more.
comScore measured the following categories of mobile device usage:
- Sending of text messages
- Mobile browser use
- Use of downloaded applications
- Use of social networking and/or blogging
- Playing games
- Listening to music
Final Thoughts
Android as a mobile platform continues to grow at a seemingly impossible level. If our beloved OS is able to keep up this level of growth, it will find itself on more than 50% of all smartphones by the end of 2011. Will Android be able to maintain this level of growth is an entirely different question, and one that requires us to hear something we probably don’t want to hear.
It’s been over a year since the iPhone 4 was originally released on At&t, and 6 months since it made it’s way to Verizon’s network. With the iPhone 5 launch right around the corner, and the fact that it will be available on At&t, Verizon, and Sprint (rumored), could the picture change a bit when the January report is released?
Regardless of the future, we Android users can rest assured that usage of Android is growing at astronomical rates and we probably will hit that 50% number before too long. I, for one, am just happy to be seeing many more Android phones than iPhones around the office and out in public, and I’m sure you guys are as well.