Moto, RIM maintain leadership positions: Mobile subscribers digging mobile content

Despite the worldwide nature of original equipment manufacturers, and the knowing nod that nearly all mobile devices are made in Southeast Asia, North American-based companies controlled the leadership position in mobile device ownership in the U.S., according to a report from Comscore Inc.
The report, part of Comscore’s MobiLens service, showed that during a three month period ended in February, U.S.-based Motorola Inc. was the top handset manufacturer while Canadian-based Research In Motion Ltd. had the highest market share of smartphone platforms. The report found that Motorola had a 22.3% market share amongst current mobile subscribers over the age of 13, while RIM was tops among smartphone platforms with 42.1% market share.
LG Electronics Co. Ltd. ranked second behind Motorola in overall market share at 21.7%, followed by fellow South Korean-based OEM Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. at 21.4%. Nokia Corp. (8.7%) and RIM (8.2%) rounded out the top five in overall market share.
Compared to its November 2009 results, RIM gained the most market share amongst the top five adding 1.7% market share. Samsung was the only other to gain share picking up .4%, while LG remained flat. Nokia lost .6%, while Motorola maintained its top position despite losing 1.9% market share between the beginning of December 2009 and February of this year.
Amongst smartphone platforms, Apple Inc. ranked second behind RIM with 25.4% market share in February, followed by Microsoft Corp. at 15.1%, Google Inc.’s Android OS at 9% and Palm Inc. at 5.4%.
Google posted the strongest gains adding 5.2% market share between November 2009 and February 2010, pushed by strong support from device manufacturers implementing the OS and support across a number of carriers. RIM picked up 1.3% market share over the sample period to pad its lead. Despite continued admiration from all corners, Apple managed to lose .1% market share, perhaps hampered by its limited availability through just one domestic carrier. Palm’s market share dipped 1.8%, while Microsoft saw its market share drop 4% between November 2009 and February 2010.
Overall, Comscore said the smartphone market surged 21% during the sample period, with more than 45.4 million domestic customers over the age of 13 owning a smartphone in February.
Data on data
Comscore’s report also found that between December 2009 and February of this year, 64% of mobile subscribers sent or received a text message, an increase of 1.9% compared with the previous three months. Mobile browser usage jumped even more, increasing 2.4% to 29.4% of domestic mobile subscribers, with customers accessing social networking sites or blogs increasing 2.9% to 18% of mobile subscribers by the end of February.