14 DAY TRIAL // Google’s Android operating system is currently the leading mobile platform on the smartphone market in the United States, with a share of over 50 percent, according to the latest report from comScore.
Android became the top OS in the United States several quarters ago, helped by great new devices coming from leading handset vendors such as Samsung, HTC and Motorola.
According to the research firm, Android managed to grab over half of the smartphone market in the US in the three months ending February 2012, up 17 percentage points when compared to the same timeframe a year ago.
They also note that Apple’s iOS platform remained on the second position on the market, and that it increased its market share by 5 percentage points when compared to last year.
At the moment, iOS accounts for 30.2 percent of the smartphone market in the US, followed by Research In Motion’s BlackBerry OS with 13.4 percent share, Microsoft’s Windows Phone with 3.9 percent, and Nokia’s Symbian at 1.5 percent.
During said period of three months, Samsung was the leading manufacturer on the smartphone market, with a share of 25.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers. comScore’s findings are based on a study that surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile users.
LG came in on the second position, with 19.4 percent share, followed by Apple with 13.5 percent of mobile subscribers (up 2.3 percentage points), Motorola on the fourth position with 12.8 percent share, and HTC on the fifth with at 6.3 percent (up 0.4 percentage points).
The research firm notes that 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices in the three months period ending February 2012, and that 104 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones in the timeframe.
“In February, 74.8 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 2.2 percentage points. Downloaded applications were used by 49.5 percent of subscribers (up 4.6 percentage points), while browsers were used by 49.2 percent (up 4.8 percentage points),” the research firm also notes.
“Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 3.1 percentage points to 36.1 percent of mobile subscribers. Game-playing was done by 32.3 percent of the mobile audience (up 2.6 percentage points), while 24.8 percent listened to music on their phones (up 3.1 percentage points).”