Android Claims More Than Half of the U.S. Smartphone Market in April 2012

Jason Hahn | DM Confidential | June 27, 2012

According to the latest numbers from comScore, Google’s Android took control of more than half of the U.S. smartphone market in April. Meanwhile, more than half of U.S. smartphone subscribers used downloaded apps in April, while a third played games on their phones.

More than 107 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in April, up 6 percent from January, according to comScore.

Using a three-month average ending in April, comScore found that 50.8 percent of U.S. smartphone users were on the Android platform, up 2.2 percentage points from the 48.6 percent share in January.

Apple followed with 31.4 percent of the market, up 1.9 percentage points from the 29.5 percent it had in January. RIM was third with 11.6 percent, down 3.6 points from its 15.2 percent share in January.

Microsoft followed with 4.0 percent of the market, down 0.4 points from its 4.4 percent share in January. Symbian was fifth with 1.3 percent of the market, down 0.2 points from its 1.5 percent share in January.

According to comScore, Samsung was the top mobile original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in April with 25.9 percent of the market, up 0.5 points from its 25.4 percent share in January.

LG was second with 19.2 percent of the market, followed by Apple with 14.4 percent, Motorola with 12.5 percent and HTC with 6.0 percent.

During the three months ending in April, 74.1 percent of U.S. smartphone users sent text messages to another phone, down 0.5 percentage points from the 74.6 percent who did the same in January. Meanwhile, 50.2 percent of smartphone users used downloaded apps in April, up 1.6 points from the 48.6 percent in January.

Forty-nine percent used a browser on their smartphones in April, while 36.0 percent accessed a social networking site or blog, 33.1 percent played games, and 25.8 percent listened to music on their mobile phones.

Separate numbers from inneractive take a look at the top three countries, by ad requests, in major app categories across all mobile platforms.

According to inneractive, the U.S. leads the arcade and action mobile app category with 19.75 percent of ad requests, followed by India with 10.51 percent and the U.K. with 6.01 percent.

The U.S. leads the news and info category with 10.72 percent of ad requests, followed by Russia with 8.70 percent and Germany with 5.48 percent.

The brain and puzzle mobile app category is led by the U.K. with 12.02 percent, followed by the U.S. with 10.73 percent and Turkey with 6.64 percent.

The U.S. leads the tools category with 11.26 percent, followed by Mexico with 11.17 percent and India with 8.63 percent.

India leads the entertainment category with 13.34 percent of ad requests, followed by Russia with 7.17 percent and the U.K. with 7.03 percent.

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