Google Android and Apple iOS Gain, While RIM BlackBerry Plummets in May 2012

According to the latest figures from comScore, Google Android has increased its ownership of more than half of the smartphone platform market in May, while Apple iOS has followed its lead. RIM BlackBerry, on the other hand, shed an unhealthy fraction of its weight.

Android claimed a three-month average of 50.9 percent of the U.S. smartphone market in May, 0.8 percentage points more than the 50.1 percent it had in February. iOS had 31.9 percent of the market in May, up 1.7 points from its 30.2 percent share in February.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry finished May with 11.4 percent of the market, down 2.0 percentage points from its 13.4 percent share back in February.

Microsoft Windows Phone was fourth with 4.0 percent of the market in May, up 0.1 percentage point from its 3.9 percent share in February. Symbian rounded out the top five smartphone platforms with 1.1 percent of the U.S. market, down 0.4 percentage points from its 1.5 percent share three months before.

Separate numbers from Flurry show that new project starts by developers for Windows Phone hit 6 percent in June, a significant climb from the 1 percent of project starts it had a year ago. Meanwhile, RIM BlackBerry project starts hold just a 1 percent share, virtually unchanged from a year ago.

In the second quarter, iOS claimed 67 percent of new project starts, followed by Android with 28 percent, Windows Phone with 4 percent and BlackBerry with 1 percent, according to Flurry.

According to comScore, Samsung was the top mobile original equipment manufacturer (OEM) with 25.7 percent of the market in May. It was followed by LG with 19.1 percent, Apple with 15.0 percent, Motorola with 12.0 percent and HTC with 6.1 percent.

For the three months ending in May, an average of 74.8 percent of mobile subscribers sent text messages to another phone, while 51.1 percent used downloaded apps, 49.8 percent used a mobile browser, 36.7 percent accessed social networking sites or blogs, 33.5 percent played games, and 27.0 percent listened to music.

During the three months ending in May, an average of 110 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones, up 5 percent from February, according to comScore.

According to NetMarketShare, iOS claimed 65.3 percent of the mobile/tablet operating system market share in June, followed by Android with 19.7 percent, Java ME with 10.2 percent, BlackBerry with 1.9 percent and Symbian with 1.5 percent.

Sources:

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2012/7/comScore_Reports_May_2012_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share

http://blog.flurry.com/bid/86277/Microsoft-May-Be-Closer-Than-It-Appears-in-Android-s-Rearview-Mirror

http://www.netmarketshare.com/mobile-market-share