According to ComScore, Android has crossed the 50-percent threshold in February to capture a majority share for the first time in its history. Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 19.4 percent share, then Apple with 13.5 percent of mobile subscribers (up 2.3 percentage points), followed by Motorola at 12.8 percent and HTC moving into the fifth position in February at 6.3.
“For the three-month average period ending in February, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices,” said ComScore. “More than 104 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in February, up 14 percent versus November. Google Android’s share of the smartphone market eclipsed 50 percent in February, an increase of 17 percentage points since February 2011. Apple ranked second with 30.2 percent of the smartphone market (up 5 percentage points versus year ago), followed by RIM at 13.4 percent, Microsoft at 3.9 percent and Symbian at 1.5 percent.”
“In February, 74.8 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 2.2 percentage points,” ComScore noted. “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). 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).”
