According to a just published report from comScore, smartphones have reached a milestone, with 76.8 million Americans out of 234 million American mobile phone users using devices that offer more computing power than feature (or “dumb”) phones.
Google Android led the platform pack among smartphone owners, with 38.1%of US smartphone subscribers, up 5.1 percent from last quarter. Apple was at #2 with 26.6% of the market up 1.4% from last quarter. RIM came in third with 24.7% share.
In terms of handset manufacturers, Samsung was the top OEM across all 234 million phones with 24.8% of the market, followed by LG with 21.1% share and Motorola with 15.1 percent. Apple is making inroads with an 8.7% share (up 1.4% from last time) and RIM follows up at #5 with 8.1% share.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but people are primarily using their phones for texting, at 69.5% of all mobile subscribers, with browsing and downloading happening by 39.8% and 38.6% of subscribers respectively. In contrast, only 18.6% of those surveyed listened to music on their phones.
I’m actually surprised we’re still calling them “phones” and not something like “pocket computers.”