Snapshot
An overview of the US smartphone marketshare shows how Android and Apple’s iOS started to dominate the scene, with Nokia’s Symbian, Palm’s WebOS, Microsoft’s Windows Phone and especially RIM’s Blackberry all losing ground. RIM has taken the largest beating with its marketshare dropping by half in 2011 to 16%. If one goes back further it should not come as a surprise that new leaders are emerging in the smartphone market as in 2005 Palm led the market but then was out shined by Microsoft from 2006 to 2007. 2008 saw RIM takeover the market, but this also only lasted a few years as Android, in the background, was gaining momentum only to become the most dominant with almost half the marketshare in 2011.

 

Key Points

  • A Q4 2011 monthly average shows that Android has claimed a 47.3% smartphone marketshare by OS in the US, this vast growth from less than 20% marketshare in June 2010 comes from the cannibalization of RIM users.
  • In 2011, 31% of RIM users said they switched to purchasing an Android smartphone, with only 43% remaining loyal to RIM as RIM was unable to keep up the rapidly changing smartphone market led by consumers demanding better mobile browsers, newer touch screen interfaces and more apps.
  • Apple’s iPhone iOS on the other hand has continued to grow steadily, monthly growth in 2011 was no more than 0.6%, except there was a total 1.5% growth in November and December that was caused by the release of the iPhone 4S in October.
  • Going back further, near the beginnings of the smartphone market, its clear that smartphone marketshare leaders need to be constantly evolving to meet consumer demands as leaders have changed hands with new rivals every two or three years. Palm was leading the market in 2005, only to be out done by Microsoft in 2006, who then in turn lost to RIM in 2008, and now as of 2011 Android is the most dominant leader in the past 7 years.
  • A yearly snapshot of the US smartphone marketshare by OS over the past 7 years, based on Q4 data, is shown below:
      • Palm: 35% 2005, 28% 2006, 16% 2007, 12% 2008, 6% 2009, 4% 2010, less than 2% 2011
      • Microsoft: 17% 2005, 34% 2006, 36% 2007, 26% 2008, 18% 2009, 8% 2010, 5% 2011
      • RIM: 26% 2005, 28% 2006, 31% 2007, 40% 2008, 41% 2009, 32% 2010, 16% 2011
      • Android: 0% 2005, 0% 2006, 0% 2007, less than 1% 2008, less than 6% 2009, 29% 2010, 47% 2011
      • Apple: 0% 2005, 0% 2006, 9% 2007, 17% 2008, 25% 2009, 25% 2010, 30% 2011
      • Nokia Symbian: 23% 2005, 10% 2006, 8% 2007, 4% 2008, 4% 2009, 3% 2010, less than 2% 2011

 

US smartphone marketshare 2010 to 2011.

 

 

Source  comScore (February 23, 2012)

Respondents & Study Method Survey of age 13+ US (10,000 mobile phone owners), UK (5,000 mobile phone owners), FR (4,000 mobile phone owners), DE (5,000 mobile phone owners), ES (4,000 mobile phone owners), IT (4,000 mobile phone owners), CA (5,000 mobile phone owners, reported quarterly), JP (4,000 mobile phone owners) mobile subscribers

Reference comScore

Image I have a dream US Martin Luther King by jrr_wired

 

 

 

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