The Cell Phone Junkie

ComScore Thursday released its U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share findings for the last quarter of 2011.  On the phone vendor side, Samsung remained on top with a 25.3% market share, no change from the third quarter. LG dropped 0.6 points to a 20% share, followed by Motorola, who fell 0.5 points to 13.3%. Apple came in fourth with 12.4%, up 2.2 points, and RIM fell 0.4 points to a 6.7% share.

On the OS side, Android remains on top in the United States with a 47.3% share, that’s up 2.5 points from the third quarter.  iOS came next, up 2.2 points to a 29.6%.  BlackBerry, Windows and Symbian all fell, 2.9 points to 16%, 0.9 points to 4.7% and 0.4 points to 1.4% respectively.

97.9 million U.S. residents owned a smartphone during the three months ended December 2011, accounting for 40% of all mobile subscribers. comScore also said 234 million Americans over 13 own a mobile device.

Press Release:

comScore Reports December 2011 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

Smartphone Penetration Climbs Over 40 Percent during December Holiday Shopping Season

RESTON, VA, February 2, 2012 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending December 2011. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 25.3 percent market share. Google Android strengthened its lead in the smartphone market to reach 47.3 percent market share.

OEM Market Share

For the three-month average period ending in December, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.3 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 20 percent share and Motorola with 13.3 percent share. Apple continued to gain ground in the OEM market with 12.4 percent share of total mobile subscribers (up 2.2 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 6.7 percent share.

Smartphone Platform Market Share

97.9 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in December, representing 40 percent of all mobile subscribers. Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 47.3 percent market share, up 2.5 percentage points from September. Apple maintained its #2 position, growing 2.2 percentage points to 29.6 percent of the smartphone market. RIM ranked third with 16 percent share, followed by Microsoft (4.7 percent) and Symbian (1.4 percent).

Mobile Content Usage

In December, 74.3 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 3.2 percentage points. Downloaded applications were used by 47.6 percent of subscribers (up 5.1 percentage points), while browsers were used by 47.5 percent (up 4.6 percentage points). Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 3.8 percentage points to 35.3 percent of mobile subscribers. Game-playing was done by 31.4 percent of the mobile audience (up 2.6 percentage points), while 23.8 percent listened to music on their phones (up 2.9 percentage points).

Source: BGR