No wonder Apple is suing HTC for patent infringement over its Android phones. In the three months between October and January, Android’s overall share of smartphone subscribers in the U.S. rose 4.3 points to 7.1 percent, according to mobile market share data released by comScore. Android showed the biggest single gain of any of the top five smartphone platforms. Apple’s share was virtually flat at 25.2 percent (up 0.3 percent), while RIM’s Blackberries saw a 1.7 percent gain to 43 percent.
Overall, 42.7 million people in the U.S. owned a smartphone during the period, up 18 percent. So even though Apple’s relative share didn’t go anywhere, it still grew with the market. But watching RIM and Android phones take share cannot be pleasant for the folks at Cupertino. The iPhone still rules the mobile Web, but again here Android is catching up fast. Time to release a new iPhone.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Palm saw drops in their shares. Windows Mobile was down 4 percent and Palm was down 2.1 percent.
| Top Smartphone Platforms
3 Month Avg. Ending Jan. 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Oct. 2009 Total U.S. Age 13+ |
|||
| Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers | |||
| Oct-09 | Jan-10 | Point Change | |
| Total Smartphone Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| RIM | 41.3% | 43.0% | 1.7 |
| Apple | 24.8% | 25.1% | 0.3 |
| Microsoft | 19.7% | 15.7% | -4.0 |
| 2.8% | 7.1% | 4.3 | |
| Palm | 7.8% | 5.7% | -2.1 |
Photo credit: Flickr/svensonsan.
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