The rapid adoption of Google Android mobile devices during 2010 made Google the second-largest smartphone operating system (OS) in the US by the end of the year, trailing only market leader RIM, according to a new white paper from comScore. “The 2010 US Digital Year in Review” indicates that among smartphone OS platforms, RIM retained its lead with 31.6% market share in December 2010 (although decreasing roughly one-quarter from 41.6% the previous year).
RIM was followed by Google at 28.7% (surging 452% from 5.2% in the past year), Apple’s market share remained mostly flat at 25%, while Microsoft followed at 8.4% (down more than 50% from 17.9% in 2009). percentage points). By December 2010, smartphone penetration had reached 27% of the mobile market.
Verizon Largest US Network Operator
The largest four mobile network providers, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, combined to account for 82% of the US mobile subscriber market (age 13 and up) in December 2010. Verizon led the US mobile market as the carrier for 31.3% of mobile subscribers, with AT&T accounting for 26.6% share, followed by T-Mobile (12.2%) and Sprint (11.9%).
AT&T Leading Smartphone Network Operator
When looking exclusively at the smartphone market, AT&T holds a solid lead with 38.3% market share, compared to Verizon’s 26.7%.
However, as an increasing number of smartphone options have become available across carriers, AT&T has seen its smartphone share decline more than 13% since December 2009. Meanwhile, Verizon has climbed 15% during the same time period, resulting from what comScore analysis indicates is Android devices using Verizon penetrating the market at a rapid clip.
Samsung Captures Lead in OEM Market
Samsung unseated 2009’s OEM (original equipment manufacturer) leader, Motorola, to rank as top OEM provider with 24.8% of devices owned by US mobile subscribers in December 2010, up 17% from 21.2% the previous year.
LG captured the second largest share of the handset market with 20.9% (declining 4.5% year-over-year from 21.9%), followed by Motorola with 16.7% (down almost 29% from 23.4% in 2009) and RIM with 8.5% (up 21% from 7%). Apple took 6.8% of the OEM market, up 37% from a 4.3% share the previous year, as the introduction of the iPhone 4 bolstered its growth.
Texting Top 2010 Mobile Activity
Text messaging led as the top mobile activity with 68% of of American mobile subscribers texting in December 2010, while more than half (52.4%) took a photo with their mobile device and 39.5% of subscribers accessed news and information.
Although application usage continued to grow in 2010, slightly more Americans (36.4%) used their mobile browser than accessed applications (34.4%). Other top mobile activities included emailing (30.5%), accessing weather information (25.2%), and using social networking or blogs (24.7%).
Millennial: Android Provides More than Half of Smartphone Impressions
Smartphones running the Android OS provided more than half (54%) of total smartphone impressions recorded on the Millennial Media network during January 2011, according to the latest Millennial Mobile MIX report. iOS came in a distant second with about half the impression rate of Android (28%).
The only other smartphone OS to account for a significant share of smartphone impressions during January 2011 was third place RIM (provider of the Blackberry platform) with 14%.
