Smartphone Penetration Grows To 76 Percent In US — Report

The latest comScore smartphone data have arrived but not much has changed. The two noteworthy items in this month’s report are an increase in smartphone ownership and Pinterest’s entry into the top 15 apps list. The company says that the US smartphone market now comprises 75.8 percent of the total mobile subscriber population. In December […]

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The latest comScore smartphone data have arrived but not much has changed. The two noteworthy items in this month’s report are an increase in smartphone ownership and Pinterest’s entry into the top 15 apps list.

The company says that the US smartphone market now comprises 75.8 percent of the total mobile subscriber population. In December it was 74.9 percent. Operating system market share data are nearly identical to three months ago.

comscore smartphone january

In the latest dataset from comScore, Android gained a nearly point while the iPhone has slipped. Compare data from Kantar Worldpanel, which shows a slightly different operating system share distribution:

  • Android — 51.9 percent
  • iOS — 42.8 percent
  • Windows — 4.3 percent
  • BlackBerry — 0.2 percent
  • Other –0.8 percent

Earlier this week IT-consulting firm Gartner produced its estimate of Q4 and full year smartphone sales on a global basis. In a year that saw more than a billion smartphones sold, Samsung was the global sales leader followed by Apple. However Apple captured nearly 90 percent of global smartphone profit.

Global smartphone sales

To throw in another comparison, below is StatCounter data showing traffic share in the US by smartphone operating system.

StatCounter Traffic share mobile

Finally, comScore’s list of top apps is almost identical to last month — except that Pinterest has entered the top 15, replacing Yahoo Stocks.

Top apps reach Jan 15

The above list documents app reach (presence on smartphones). It does not indicate usage frequency or engagement. According to comScore, in January Pandora passed Facebook for greatest average monthly minutes of usage.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Greg Sterling
Contributor
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

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