The IDC recently predicted that global smartphone shipments would exceed feature phone shipments this year, and new data concerning the US smartphone market does nothing to put that forecast in doubt. Smartphone penetration reached 55% of the US mobile market during the 3-month period ending in January 2013, per the latest figures from comScore MobiLens, representing almost 30% growth from 42.7% market share at that time last year.
While the smartphone platform market has increasingly become a 2-horse race between Google and Apple during the past year or so of steady smartphone penetration growth, this past 3-month period is the first in some time to show a dip in Google’s share.
Compared to the 3-month average ending in October 2012, Google’s share of the smartphone market dropped by 1.3% points, to 52.3%. Although Google retained its majority share of the market, its dip stood in contrast to Apple’s 3.5% point gain in market share, to 37.8%. Over the past year, then, Apple’s share of the market has improved by 8.3% points, while Google’s share has grown by a more muted 3.7% points.
In a more familiar result, BlackBerry saw its market share drop by 1.9% points to 5.9% between the 3-month periods ending in October 2012 and January 2013, while Microsoft (3.1%) and Symbian (0.5%) each saw a marginal decline of 0.1% points.
Apple also improved its position as the top smartphone OEM, up 3.5% points to 37.8% of smartphone subscribers, ahead of Samsung (up 1.9% points to 21.4%), HTC (9.7%), Motorola (8.6%) and LG (7%).
About the Data: 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.
