Commentary
Apple Moves Up But Samsung Holds Mobile User Lead
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, October 16, 2012
According to comScore, for the three-month average period ending in August, 234 million Americans (74.5%) age 13 and older used mobile devices. Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.7% of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG. Apple continued to inch closer to the #2 ranking, followed by Motorola.
Top Mobile OEMs (3 Month Average; Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+) | |||
| Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers | ||
| May-12 | Aug-12 | Point Change |
Total Mobile Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
Samsung | 25.7% | 25.7% | 0.0 |
LG | 19.1% | 18.2% | -0.9 |
Apple | 15.0% | 17.1% | 2.1 |
Motorola | 12.0% | 11.2% | -0.8 |
HTC | 6.1% | 6.3% | 0.2 |
Source: comScore MobiLens, October 2012 | |||
116.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in August, up 6% versus May. Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform, while Apple’s share increased 2.4 percentage points.
Top Smartphone Platforms (3 Month Average Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+ ) | |||
| Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers | ||
| May-12 | Aug-12 | Point Change |
Total Smartphone Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
50.9% | 52.6% | 1.7 | |
Apple | 31.9% | 34.3% | 2.4 |
RIM | 11.4% | 8.3% | -3.1 |
Microsoft | 4.0% | 3.6% | -0.4 |
Symbian | 1.1% | 0.7% | -0.4 |
Source: comScore MobiLens, October 2012 | |||
In August, 75.6% of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device. Downloaded applications were used by 53.4% of subscribers, while browsers were used by 52%. Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 1.6 percentage points. Game-playing was up 0.5 percentage points.
Mobile Content Usage (3 Month Average Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+) | |||
| Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers | ||
| May-12 | Aug-12 | Point Change |
Total Mobile Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
Sent text message to another phone | 74.8% | 75.6% | 0.8 |
Used downloaded apps | 51.1% | 53.4% | 2.3 |
Used browser | 49.8% | 52.0% | 2.2 |
Accessed social networking site or blog | 36.7% | 38.3% | 1.6 |
Played Games | 33.5% | 34.0% | 0.5 |
Listened to music on mobile phone | 27.0% | 28.3% | 1.3 |
Source: comScore MobiLens, October 2012 | |||
At the same time, Comscore released a study finding that Instagram attracted an average of 7.3 million daily users in the US via mobile device in August 2012, surpassing the 6.9 million who visited Twitter via mobile device. This figure is a nearly tenfold increase from six months earlier.
Average Daily US Visitors To Twitter and Instagram (x000) | |||
Social Medium | March, 2012 | May, 2012 | August, 2012 |
5,529 | 5,722 | 6,868 | |
886 | 1,878 | 7,302 | |
Source: comScore Mobile Metrix 2.0, October 2012 | |||
For additional information from comScore, please visit here.
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.