Android Leads US Smartphone OS Market, comScore Says

Google's Android operating system is now the leading mobile platform on the United States market, reports from leading analyst firms show, including Nielsen and comScore.

We already had a look at the latest report from Nielsen, and now comScore offers a new perspective on the matter, putting Android at the top of the chain with 31.2 percent market share.

During the three months period ended January 31st, mobile devices were used by 234 million Americans ages 13 and older, the report shows.

Moreover, comScore found that the top OEM on the local market for the said time frame was Samsung, with handsets in the hands of 24.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers.

The company increased its share by 0.7 percentage points from October. The second place went to LG, with 20.8 percent share, followed by Motorola on the third with 16.5 percent. RIM enjoyed 8.6 percent market share, while Apple only 7.0 percent.

During the time frame, a number of 65.8 million people in the U.S. had a smartphone, an increase of 8 percent when compared to the three months period ended in October.

The reports shows that Google's Android platform managed to end the period on the first position with 31.2 percent market share.

The company also notes that RIM was second with 30.4 percent market share, Apple scored the third place with 24.7 percent share, Microsoft came in fourth with 8.0 percent, and Palm entered the top five with 3.2 percent.

The company also notes that this is the first time that Android manages to score the first position on the US market.

“In January, 68.1 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, while browsers were used by 37.0 percent of subscribers (up 0.8 percentage points),” comScore also notes.

“Subscribers who used downloaded applications comprised 35.3 percent of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 1.6 percentage points.

“Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 1.1 percentage points, representing 25.3 percent of mobile subscribers. Playing games represented 23.7 percent of the mobile audience, while listening to music represented 16.5 percent (up 1.1 percentage points).”

The reports is based on data coming from the comScore MobiLens service, which analyzed key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry in the three months ended January 2011. Over 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers were surveyed.