14 DAY TRIAL // Google’s Android operating system has been bleeding market share in the United States in the past several months, a recent report from comScore unveils.
During January 2014, Android has enjoyed a 51.7 percent market share in the country, down 0.5 percentage points when compared to October last year, when it accounted for 52.2 percent of smartphones.
Moreover, the report unveils that BlackBerry has continued its fall in the timeframe, and that it ended the first month of this year with a market share of 3.1 percent, down from 3.6 percent back in October.
The same report reveals that Apple was the top manufacturer in the US in January this year, with 41.6 percent market share, while Samsung came in on the second position, with 26.7 percent share (an increase from the 25.4 percent it accounted for in October).
Data coming from comScore MobiLens and Mobile Metrix also unveiles that “Google Sites ranked as the top mobile media property, while Facebook was the top individual app.”
The report also reveals that over 159.8 million people in the United States had a smartphone in the three months ended January 2014, and that their number went up 7 percent when compared to October last year.
When it comes to manufacturers, LG was placed third with 6.9 percent market share (up 0.3 percentage points), Motorola ended the month on the fourth position with 6.4 percent, and HTC came in fifth with a 5.4 percent share.
In the mobile operating system area, Apple’s iOS ranked second with 41.6 percent (up 1 percentage point compared to October), while Microsoft came in third with 3.2 percent market share, the same as three months before. BlackBerry dropped to the fourth position, while Symbian stayed on the fifth at 0.2 percent.
According to comScore, the data included in this report refers to smartphone subscribers in the three months ended January 2014, and included only users that are of at least age 13.
Last week, during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft was proud to say that Windows Phone had already left BlackBerry behind, though the new report shows that its platform did not grab more market share in the past months.
However, given that the smartphone market has expanded, it’s clear that sales of Windows Phone handsets have already increased, given that the OS kept the same market share. Microsoft is confident that it will get closer to Android and iOs in the not too distant future.
What remains to be seen is whether Android will lose more ground in front of competitors, and whether Windows Phone will manage to steal that market share from it.