comScore Reports August Mobile Subscriber Market Share

comScore, Inc.

today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending August 2010. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S. according to their share of current mobile subscribers ages 13 and older, and reviewed the most popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber's primary mobile phone. The August report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 23.6 percent market share, while RIM

led among smartphone platforms with 37.6 percent market share.

For the three month average period ending in August, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 23.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up 1.2 percentage points from the preceding three month period. LG ranked second with 21.2 percent share, followed by Motorola

(18.8 percent share), RIM (9.0 percent share, up 0.3 percentage points) and Nokia

(7.6 percent share).

55.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in August, up 14 percent from the May period. RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 37.6 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.2 percent share. Google

continues to gain ground in the market, rising 6.6 percentage points to capture 19.6 percent of smartphone subscribers. Microsoft

accounted for 10.8 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Palm rounded out the top five with 4.6 percent. Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.

In August, nearly 67 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.4 percentage points versus the prior three month period, while browsers were used by 34.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.6 percentage points). Subscribers who used downloaded applications comprised 32.3 percent of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 2.3 percentage points from the previous period. Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 1.7 percentage points, representing 22.5 percent of mobile subscribers, while listening to music inched 0.4 percentage points, representing 14.7 percent of subscribers.