comScore: Apple’s smartphone market share grows, Samsung’s shrinks; iOS outgrows Android in U.S.

comScore, Inc., 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 July 2012. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 25.6 percent market share. Google Android continued to lead among smartphone platforms, accounting for 52.2 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Apple secured 33.4 percent.

OEM Market Share

For the three-month average period ending in July, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 18.4 percent share. Apple continued to gain share in the OEM market, ranking third with 16.3 percent of mobile subscribers (up 1.9 percentage points), followed by Motorola with 11.2 percent and HTC with 6.4 percent (up 0.4 percentage points).

Top Mobile OEMs 3 Month Avg. Ending Jul. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Apr. 2012 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone) Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens

Smartphone Platform Market Share

More than 114 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in July, up 7 percent versus April. Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 52.2 percent market share (up 1.4 percentage points), while Apple’s share increased 2 percentage points to 33.4 percent. RIM ranked third with 9.5 percent share, followed by Microsoft (3.6 percent) and Symbian (0.8 percent).

Top Smartphone Platforms 3 Month Avg. Ending Jul. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Apr. 2012 Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens

Mobile Content Usage

In July, 75.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device (up 1.5 percentage points). Downloaded applications were used by 52.6 percent of subscribers (up 2.4 percentage points), while browsers were used by 51.2 percent (up 2.2 percentage points). Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 1.9 percentage points to 37.9 percent of mobile subscribers. Game-playing was done by 33.8 percent of the mobile audience (up 0.7 percentage points), while 28.3 percent listened to music on their phones (up 2.5 percentage points).

Mobile Content Usage 3 Month Avg. Ending Jul. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Apr. 2012 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone) Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens

MobiLens data is derived from an intelligent online survey of a nationally representative sample of mobile subscribers age 13 and older. Data on mobile phone usage refers to a respondent’s primary mobile phone and does not include data related to a respondent’s secondary device.

Source: comScore, Inc.

[Attribution: 9to5Mac. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]

11 Comments

    1. Samsung “stuffed the channel” at a time they knew Apple wouldn’t be selling as many iPhone 4’s (because a new model is weeks ( or days!) away)
      Channel stuffing (filling resellers warehouses with product) technically counts as “sales” because samesung “sold” them to resellers, but the phones weren’t actually “sold” as in to customers.

      Just a sleazy trick brought to you by a master of sleaze: Samsung

  1. It’s less important about whose winning in market share than whose making the most revenue and profits. Any analyst that has his head wrapped around believing market share shows which company is winning is dead wrong. So far, Apple has the best financial model of all companies and as long as the financial model stays solid, Apple wins.

    Apple doesn’t need the low end smartphone buyer even in China. If Apple did, what would prevent the company from pursuing it just like any other company? Economies of scale will work at either end of the cost spectrum. The only problem is that Apple would likely have to reduce quality and I hope it doesn’t go there. Besides, no company needs to have 90% of the pie to be considered successful. All Apple needs is a steady YOY growth in iPhone sales even if it’s losing market share every year.

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