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Motorola, RIM leading, with Apple on the rise

Although Apple gets all the attention, Motorola and RIM are still the top handset and smartphone makers in the U.S.

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.
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Don Reisinger
2 min read

Among the bevy of Motorola phones. Motorola

Both Motorola and Research In Motion are leading their respective markets, according to market researcher ComScore. But Apple is coming on strong.

ComScore's latest data from September through December shows that Motorola was the top cell phone vendor in the U.S. with 23.5 percent market share. It was followed by LG, Samsung, and Nokia, with 21.9 percent, 21.2 percent, and 9.2 percent market share, respectively.

Motorola led the pack, but its market share still declined 1.4 percent between September and December. Samsung had the strongest increase with 0.8 percent growth over the period.

On the smartphone side, RIM continues to dominate with 41.6 percent market share. That said, its share did decline by about 1 percent between September and December.

Picking up 1.2 percent market share over the period, Apple controlled 25.3 percent of the smartphone space.

Apple was followed by Microsoft, Palm, and Google, which commanded 18 percent, 6.1 percent, and 5.2 percent market share, respectively. Google saw the biggest gains of any smartphone OS on the market. It increased its market share by 2.7 percent during the last quarter.

One note: There is a bit of apples vs. oranges comparison going on here, so to speak, because RIM's market share figure includes all its models, while Apple's share is comprised on just one model: the iPhone.

Texting on the rise
ComScore also found that text messaging is coming on strong. Back in September, 61 percent of mobile users text messaged others. By the end of December, 63.1 percent of all mobile users in the U.S. were text messaging.

According to the researcher, mobile Web browsing, mobile gaming, and use of downloadable apps are growing in popularity too.

ComScore found that 27.5 percent of U.S. mobile users surf the Web on their phones, while 21.6 percent of users play games, and 17.8 percent use downloadable apps. Social-networking use and music listening are increasing as well. ComScore found that 15.9 percent of mobile users access a social network or blog and 12.1 percent listen to music on a mobile phone.