14 DAY TRIAL // Google’s Android operating system managed to grab some more market share in the United States in the past several months, and established itself as the leading mobile platform in the country.
According to the latest data from comScore, Android was accounting for 48.6 percent of smartphone subscribers at the end of January 2012.
The report also shows that the number of smartphone subscribers has increased significantly in the U.S., and that it reached 101.3 million in January.
When compared to the three months period ending October 2011, the number of smartphone subscribers in the United States went up by 13 percent.
Google went up 2.3 percentage points in the timeframe, while Apple’s iOS grew 1.4 percentage points, to 29.5 percent market share at the end of January 2012.
RIM’s BlackBerry platform ranked third in comScore’s report, with 15.2 percent share, with Microsoft’s mobile OS on the fourth at 4.4 percent, and Symbian on the fifth with 1.5 percent market share.
The research firm also notes that the number of United States users aged 13 and older who had a mobile device in the three-month average period ending in January was of 234 million, and that Samsung was the top maker.
“Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 19.7 percent share and Motorola with 13.2 percent share,” the research firm notes.
“Apple continued to capture share in the OEM market with 12.8 percent of total mobile subscribers (up 2.0 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 6.6 percent.”
The data included in this report is based on a study in which over 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers have been surveyed. The report was intended to offer key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry in the three-month period ending January 2012.
comScore also notes that 74.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device in January, marking an increase of 2.8 percentage points from the previously surveyed period.
“Downloaded applications were used by 48.6 percent of subscribers (up 4.8 percentage points), while browsers were used by 48.5 percent (up 4.5 percentage points),” the research firm notes.
“Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 3.4 percentage points to 35.7 percent of mobile subscribers. Game-playing was done by 31.8 percent of the mobile audience (up 2.6 percentage points), while 24.5 percent listened to music on their phones (up 3.3 percentage points).”