Report: Smartphone Shares Flat Ahead Of iPhone 6 Launch

The monthly smartphone report from comScore has become as “boring” as the search market share report. It now changes very little month over month. The following reflects the platform share numbers for July 2014: Google leads, Apple is second and everyone else is in the low single digits.

This month Google and Android lost a point of share and Apple gained one. Windows Phone gained a third of a point. This is how it has been going for many many months. The iPhone 6 may shake things up a bit depending on how “sexy” the device is.

ComScore and Nielsen both agree that smartphone penetration among mobile subscribers is now about 71 – 72 percent. (We’ll hit 75 percent by Q4.) The two firms’ market share estimates are extremely close.

Nielsen breaks down smartphone ownership by age and gender, finding that more than 85 percent of Millennials today own a smartphone.

ComScore’s report also gives us the top 15 apps. This list too has seen little change since its introduction a year ago. These top apps move up or down slightly but rarely do new apps enter or fall off the list. Google+ was the first new app to claw its way onto the list a few months ago.

According to Nielsen the average smartphone owner in the US uses 27 apps per month and spends just over 30 minutes per month using them. This is 2013 data so the numbers are likely to be higher. Indeed comScore previously reported that 51 percent of all digital media time is now spent in apps.

(Stock image via Shutterstock.com. Used under license.)