Smartphone Penetration Likely To Be 75 Percent By Year End

The latest comScore smartphone subscriber figures are out. They reflect nearly 72 percent smartphone penetration in the US.

As recently as 2012, comScore used a base of 234 million mobile subscribers (over 13) to calculate smartphone penetration. In this most recent release, the firm said that in June “173 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones.” Using that earlier 234 million base the smartphone marketshare number would be closer to 74 percent.

By comparison, the CTIA said in June 2012 that there were 321.7 “wireless subscriber connections.” This is greater than the US population, indicating either inflated reporting or several million people with two or more subscriptions.

Looking at June’s comScore data, the positions of the smartphone makers didn’t change much in the past month. Samsung and Apple both gained while the others lost relative share.

In terms of operating systems, iOS and Windows gained slightly. The market has reached an apparent equilibrium of sorts. We’ll see if that changes at all with the release of the forthcoming larger-screen iPhones.

Turning to mobile app penetration, the various positions of the top 15 mobile apps remained largely unchanged month over month. Below is a comparison of July 2013 and June 2014.

Notwithstanding the various subscriber base numbers floating around, it’s probably safe to predict that the US will be at or above 75 percent smartphone penetration by year end.