ComScore: Google Android Shows Rapid Growth

July 11, 2010

Google’s Android was the only smart­phone OS that expe­ri­enced growth dur­ing the three month period end­ing in May accord­ing to com­Score. Android increased its mar­ket share by four per­cent to 13.0%. One major note is that this period is prior to the begin­ning of sales of Apple’s hugely suc­cess­ful iPhone 4. Nonetheless, Android is grow­ing and grow­ing fast.

Research In Motion (RIM) remained the num­ber one smart­phone OS in the United States with a 41.7% mar­ket share, a slight decline from 42.1%. Apple also expe­ri­enced a slight reduc­tion of its mar­ket share from 25.4% to 24.4%, but keep­ing its posi­tion at num­ber two. Microsoft remained at num­ber three with 13.2% down from 15.1%. With Android at 13.0% and expe­ri­enc­ing rapid growth it is likely that Google’s smart­phone OS will over­take Microsoft when com­Score announces its next smart­phone mar­ket share report. Palm was a dis­tant num­ber five with just 4.8% mar­ket share, down from 5.4%.

The total num­ber of US-based smart­phone sub­scribers is 49.1 mil­lion, but bear in mind that comScore’s data tap smart­phone sub­scribers who are 13 and older. I know of a few who are younger tot­ing smart­phones and I’m sure you do too, so the actual num­ber is cer­tainly higher.

I am vis­it­ing South Korea at the moment and the two main smart­phone brands LG and Samsung are focused on bring­ing more advanced Android-based smart­phones as quickly as pos­si­ble. The iPhone 3GS is get­ting old but the iPhone 4 isn’t out yet. Samsung in par­tic­u­lar is accel­er­at­ing its Android devel­op­ment and has intro­duced some fan­tas­tic mod­els includ­ing the new Galaxy S, which by the way is being pro­moted by nearly every mobile phone store on every street in Seoul. LG’s Android-based smart­phone Optimus is also being heav­ily adver­tised. I chose to go with Motorola’s Motoroi because of its supe­rior dis­play, which is a 3.7-inch IPS LCD sport­ing a class-leading 854×480. Class-leading in South Korea at the moment. Read SKTelecom Motorola XT720 Motoroi Review: 3.7-inch IPS Android 2.1 Smartphone In South Korea for my ini­tial thoughts.