Apple's Piece of the Smartphone Market Share Rises to 27%

[Michael Essany]

Apple's iOS platform has ticked upward yet again in the US smartphone market share. According to the latest data made available from comScore, iOS now represents 27% of the domestic mobile operating system market. During the previous quarter, iOS claimed only 26% of the market.

Unfortunately for Apple, however, Android gained 5% during the same period. So whose market share did Apple erode? Research in Motion, Microsoft, and Symbian. The most precipitous fall came for RIM, which saw its BlackBerry platform tumble from 25% down to 21%.

All told, Google's Android now retains a 41.8 percent market share with Microsoft (5.7 percent) and Symbian (1.9 percent) finishing at the opposite end of the spectrum.

82.2 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in July 2011, up 10 percent from the preceding three month period.

Device manufacturer Samsung once again came in as the top OEM with 25.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 1.0 percentage points). LG was second with a 20.9 percent share and Motorola captured a 14.1 percent share. Apple, meanwhile, bolstered its position in fourth with a 9.5 percent share of mobile subscribers (up 1.2 percentage points). RIM finished last of the top five with just 7.6 percent.

Source: comScore

[iPod]

Well considering there's a bajillion android phones and only 1 iPhone, it would only make sense that android would gain slightly more of the market share

[Donnutt]

Well considering there's a bajillion android phones and only 1 iPhone, it would only make sense that android would gain slightly more of the market share

True that. Plus when faced with the decision of a $100-$200 iPhone or a free android, any uninformed people take the obvious choice.

[eightyk88]

Does samsung get a peice of each smartphone with the samsung amoled screen as well ?

[RICO_]

Well apparently Samsung's steady rise in market share is enough to spook Apple (despite the # of phones difference) since Apple is taking the time to sue the crap out of them. If I were Apple I would enjoy the fact that Android OS has the larger market share given the fact that the viruses and malware are mostly being coded to attack THEM rather than Apple devices.

Last I heard Apple is murdering HTC in profits, revenue, shipments, cash on hand, etc. So what's the big deal anyway about market share. Apple is doing just fine.

[kuhndsn]

Well considering there's a bajillion android phones and only 1 iPhone, it would only make sense that android would gain slightly more of the market share

Exactly. Always a spin on reporting stats. The real measure is to look at the net worth. Hmmmmmm. Lol. Pretty amazing that the iPhone holds such a competitive market share. RIM had several platforms as well as Android OS.

[Carvensno]

My buddy is a big android fan and he was trying to talk smack about the iPhone and Apple since Steve had resigned. But i told him this...

Only thing is tho, you have like 30 different android OS phones out there and 1 iPhone. At least Apple has there own phone and there own IOS to run it. Google doesn't even make a phone for there own OS. If your going to compare phones or OS's about the only phone you can honestly compare is the Nexus S to the iPhone 4. Oh but wait??? That's right its made be Samsung!!! NOT GOOGLE!!! LMAO :P

Plus if your going to compare Android to Apple then you would be talking IOS then! I can at least say Apple runs regular updates to fix or add features unlike Android. Also the developers that make the apps for IPhone update there apps on a regular basis also unlike the ones for android!!

[NegativeBeef]

So basically Google is slowly becoming the Microsoft of the smartphone world.

[Renewable69]

My buddy is a big android fan and he was trying to talk smack about the iPhone and Apple since Steve had resigned. But i told him this...

Only thing is tho, you have like 30 different android OS phones out there and 1 iPhone. At least Apple has there own phone and there own IOS to run it. Google doesn't even make a phone for there own OS. If your going to compare phones or OS's about the only phone you can honestly compare is the Nexus S to the iPhone 4. Oh but wait??? That's right its made be Samsung!!! NOT GOOGLE!!! LMAO :P

Plus if your going to compare Android to Apple then you would be talking IOS then! I can at least say Apple runs regular updates to fix or add features unlike Android. Also the developers that make the apps for IPhone update there apps on a regular basis also unlike the ones for android!!

Oh god, there are so many things wrong with this comment, I have an iPhone and a Motorola xoom android tablet (android alternsrive to the I pad) and I think that while JAILBROKEN ios might just be the best phone operating system in the world, android is definately much better than apple's ios. More manufacturers is alot better for us, the consumer because that means more competition, or in other words cheaper, better devices. And as for that last part, I don't think you have any expirence to say anything like that. Have you ever used android? The updates are probably more regular than ios updates, and yes, of course developers update their apps! Probably about as much as apple developers do. Also, while there are more ios apps, the android apps are probably of better quality. Ios developers are restricted on what they can do with their software, making limited crappy apps. Android apps can be more like jailbroken apps, FREE anyways, your argument is invalid.

[iPod]

Oh god, there are so many things wrong with this comment, I have an iPhone and a Motorola xoom android tablet (android alternsrive to the I pad) and I think that while JAILBROKEN ios might just be the best phone operating system in the world, android is definately much better than apple's ios. More manufacturers is alot better for us, the consumer because that means more competition, or in other words cheaper, better devices. And as for that last part, I don't think you have any expirence to say anything like that. Have you ever used android? The updates are probably more regular than ios updates, and yes, of course developers update their apps! Probably about as much as apple developers do. Also, while there are more ios apps, the android apps are probably of better quality. Ios developers are restricted on what they can do with their software, making limited crappy apps. Android apps can be more like jailbroken apps, FREE anyways, your argument is invalid.

Wrong! iOS apps are much better quality than android. There are no trojans in the iOS app store, and often android apps are very buggy. I love android too, but that statement is pitifully incorrect

[confucious]

Also, while there are more ios apps, the android apps are probably of better quality.

That's an interesting statement - directly at odds with my own experience and every other report I have read. Would you care to elaborate on which apps are better quality on Android? While Android has a lot going for it, better quality apps was not one of those things I would have put on the list. Maybe things have improved since I last looked?

[GmAz]

True that. Plus when faced with the decision of a $100-$200 iPhone or a free android, any uninformed people take the obvious choice.

Ya, keep making excuses. Every time there is a new Android release, people flock for the $200-$300 phone. People by their phone for the software available on it. Same goes for the iPhone. You can still buy a 3GS but people buy the 4. Plus, if iOS was available on other hardware, I bet the iPhone itself would shrink considerably. Exclusivity is the only thing keeping Apple's hardware selling.

That's an interesting statement - directly at odds with my own experience and every other report I have read. Would you care to elaborate on which apps are better quality on Android? While Android has a lot going for it, better quality apps was not one of those things I would have put on the list. Maybe things have improved since I last looked?

Sorry, but in the past 6 months or so, there has been a ton of quality apps released. They are becoming much more polished. Apps I have used since I got my DroidX that weren't pretty, but very functional are getting redone from scratch and updated to look more polished and run better/do more things. Think of when iOS apps first came out. They were mostly crap. Many were buggy and very basic. Over time, as with most things, they got better. Same with Android apps.

[confucious]

No need to apologise - can you give me some examples of quality Android Apps so I can check them out?

[UKROB86]

honestly, i've been watching android recently too and although im an iPhone fan, the androids are catching up very fast. With more demands, users, and developers, dont be surprised if the android market surpasses the app store very soon.
The phones available to run android are already higher in processing power than the iPhone 5 which hasn't even been released yet, sadly to say apple is falling behind in terms of hardware, except usually apples phones are made of more quality components, but what does that mean, when u have half the processing power of the competing phones.

[confucious]

As we don't know the specs of the iP5 yet how can you say that?

Or do you know something we don't?

[iBwizzle]

One iPhone? Last I remembered there was the iPhone (2G), iPhone 3G, iPhone 3Gs, and the iPhone 4... That's a total of four "DIFFERENT" iPhones!

iPhones will forever be behind in hardware with their underclocked processors, non-removable batteries, and restricted access!

[confucious]

Apparently Apple's share of the smartphone market has remained flat at 28%
Nielsen: Android takes 40% of U.S. smartphone market in July; iOS flat, RIM down a point

There's probably a 10% margin of error in these surveys...