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Android nabs 41 percent share in U.S., study finds

The mobile operating system is leading Apple's iOS, which secured 27 percent of the mobile space during the three-month period that ended in July.

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
Don Reisinger
2 min read

Try as it might to catch up to Android, iOS simply isn't gaining ground, a new study from research firm ComScore has found.

During the three-month period that ended in July, Android captured 41.8 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, representing a 5.4 percentage point increase over the 36.4 percent market share it had in the quarter that ended in April.

Apple's iOS platform came in second during the three-month period, earning 27 percent market share, up from the 26 percent it had in the prior period. RIM's BlackBerry OS came in third with 21.7 percent share, down from the 25.7 percent share it had during the previous three-month period. Windows Phone and Symbian rounded out the top five with 5.7 percent and 1.9 percent market share, respectively.

ComScore's study is just the latest research to conclude that Android is easily dominating all other competitors in the mobile space. Earlier this month, research firm NPD said that during the second quarter, Android was running on 52 percent of all smartphones sold in the U.S., besting iOS, which secured 29 percent market share. NPD concluded that BlackBerry OS had 11 percent share.

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It was a similar story on a worldwide scale. Research firm Gartner earlier this month revealed that Android had 43.4 percent worldwide market share during the second quarter. Symbian controlled 22.1 percent of the worldwide space last quarter, while iOS trailed with 18.2 percent worldwide market share, according to Gartner.

Android's success is helping the U.S. smartphone market explode. During the three-month period ended July, 82.2 million people in the U.S. owned a smartphone, ComScore found. That figure was up 10 percent from the prior three-month period.

Texting beats browsing and downloading
However, even though a growing number of people have advanced devices that let them surf the Web, check e-mail, and download applications, sending a text message--something folks can do from feature phones, as well--was their most popular activity during the last quarter. According to ComScore, 70 percent of handset owners sent out an SMS during the three-month period. Using a browser and downloading applications came in second and third with 41.1 percent and 40.6 percent of Americans engaging in those activities, respectively.

So, on which devices were those folks actually sending out texts and surfing the Web? According to ComScore, Samsung's handsets proved to be most popular during the last three-month period, earning 25.5 percent market share. LG's devices had 20.9 percent share. Motorola, Apple, and RIM rounded out the top five with 14.1 percent, 9.5 percent, and 7.6 percent share, respectively.

At those tallies, not much has changed over the last several months. During the three-month period ended April, all the companies were in the same rank order, though RIM had slightly more market share at 8.2 percent.

Android is tops in the U.S. mobile space.
Android is tops in the U.S. mobile space. ComScore MobiLens