Report: Android gaining market share

Google's open source Android mobile operating system (OS) has continued to grow and gain US market share over other popular mobile operating systems in recent months. According to a February 2010 Mobile Subscriber Market Share report from US market research firm comScore, Google's smarpthone OS has grown more than 5 percentage points since November of 2009 alone – far more than any of its competitors. The positive trend means that Android now holds an overall US market share of 9%. The comScore report surveyed current mobile subscribers age 13 and older to find out what device manufacturer and platform they were using.

Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) currently holds a 42.1% market share, an increase of 1.3% from November of 2009 to February of this year. Apple's iPhone smartphones came in at 25.4%, down just 0.1%. Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform remained in third place, losing even more ground with minus four percentage points leaving it with a market share of 15.1%. Android over took Palm with it's 9%, while Palm lost 1.8% leaving it in fifth place with a market share of just 5.4%.

According to comScore's results, there are 234 million Americans who are mobile subscribers and of those, 45.4 million people who own smartphones. That's an increase of 21% in only a three month period. Amongst the manufacturers of phones, comScore says that, while still losing 1.9 percentage points, Motorola is the top US mobile original equipment manufacturer (OEM) with a total of 22.3% of the market. LG was the runner-up with 21.7%, followed by Samsung with 21.4%. Nokia, which isn't traditionally as popular in the US as it is in the rest of the world, suffered a slight decline putting it in fourth place with 8.7%. RIM gained 1.7% to bring its device market share to 8.2%.

See also:

• comScore Reports February 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share, press release from comScore.
• Of Android and the Fear of Fragmentation, a feature from The H.

(crve)