Android Grabs US Market Share

Google’s Android operating system grabbed 44.8 percent market share through September, up from 43.7 percent share as it increased its lead in the US smartphone market.

Apple’s iPhone took 27.4 percent share, up from 27.3 percent in August, according to comScore. iOS should show an uptick in iOS gains after October and November, when sales of the new iPhone 4S are counted.

Siri personal assistant

Apple began selling that phone, which has an 8-megapixel camera, faster processor and the Siri personal assistant, on 14 October in several countries worldwide. It will be interesting to see whether iPhone 4S sales have a deleterious effect on Android handset sales through the holiday season.

Research In Motion’s stake in the market dipped to 18.9 percent in September, from 19.7 percent in August, as the Canadian phone maker’s new BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 smartphones failed to cease its slide in the market. The company’s subscriber numbers may only drop after a major outage shook the company in October.

Microsoft Windows Mobile/Phone 7 share also fell, to 5.6 percent from 5.8 percent through August. The software maker, which is urgently trying to make headway versus Android and iPhone gadgets in the market, expects sales of its Windows Phone “Mango” platform to lift the company’s flagging market share this holiday season.

comScore said over 234 million Americans used mobile devices through August, with Samsung accounting for 25.3 percent of the US subscriber share. LG and Motorola followed with 20.6 percent share and 13.8 percent share, respectively. Apple stood at 10.2 percent, while RIM notched 7.1 percent in the US.

Smartphones dominate

Of those 234 million US users using phones, 87.4 million used smartphones, up from 85.5 million through August and up from 82 million in July.

That shows that there are plenty of more selling opportunities for platform and handset makers to reach consumers. OEMs can make and ship an array of low-cost to midrange and premium phones to find homes with millions of more users.

comScore numbers come one day after Nielsen said Android accounted for 43 percent market share for the third quarter, with iOS topping out at 27 percent. The researcher also found that of the 43 percent of all US mobile phone users that own a smartphone, nearly 54 percent are aged 18 to 24 and 35 to 44.

Clint Boulton eWEEK USA 2012. Ziff Davis Enterprise Inc. All Rights Reserved

Share
Published by
Clint Boulton eWEEK USA 2012. Ziff Davis Enterprise Inc. All Rights Reserved

Recent Posts

UK’s CMA Readies Cloud Sector “Behavioural” Remedies – Report

Targetting AWS, Microsoft? British competition regulator soon to announce “behavioural” remedies for cloud sector

12 hours ago

Former Policy Boss At X Nick Pickles, Joins Sam Altman Venture

Move to Elon Musk rival. Former senior executive at X joins Sam Altman's venture formerly…

15 hours ago

Bitcoin Rises Above $96,000 Amid Trump Optimism

Bitcoin price rises towards $100,000, amid investor optimism of friendlier US regulatory landscape under Donald…

16 hours ago

FTX Co-Founder Gary Wang Spared Prison

Judge Kaplan praises former FTX CTO Gary Wang for his co-operation against Sam Bankman-Fried during…

17 hours ago