Apple’s Share of Mobile Hardware & Software Market Rising

In the latest 3-month data from comScore, Samsung is the leading manufacturer of mobile phones in the US while Android is the leading OS for smartphones. Apple’s second-ranked share of the OS market grew during this time period, while Symbian, Microsoft, and RIM continued to decline.

For the 3-month period ending in November, comScore’s survey of 30,000 Americans over aged 13 and older showed that 234 million used a mobile device. With an estimated 207 million adults between 15-65 years old in 2010, that seems to cover nearly everyone.

Samsung continues to be the leading OEM with 25.6% share when smartphones and non-smartphones are combined. Their percentage share rose 0.3 points during the period. Apple was the only other manufacturer to show a gain during this time, rising 1.4 points to a fourth-place 11.2% share. LG lost 0.5 points (20.5%), Motorola lost 0.3 points (13.7%), and RIM lost 0.6 points (6.5%).

Top OEMs

Chart by The Mac Observer from comScore data

When looking at only smartphones, the platform of choice is Android with a 46.9% share of the OS market, up 3.1 points during the 3-month period. Apple also saw a gain of 1.4 points to end with a 28.7% share. RIM lost the most points, dropping 3.1 to a 16.6% share, while Microsoft and Symbian had smaller losses of 0.5 and 0.3 points to end with 5.2% and 1.5% shares respectively.

Smartphone Platforms

Chart by The Mac Observer from comScore data

Smartphone or not, all mobile subscribers seem to be using their devices for more than just making calls. Whether it be sending text messages, browsing the web, or listening to music, the number of people taking advantage of the features of their phone rose across the board.

Bryan Chaffin contributed to this article.