comScore Reports January 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share – comScore, Inc March 11, 2010
Posted by hruf in Mobile & Gadgets.Tags: Apple, Google, iPhone, Market, Market Trends, Microsoft, Mobile, Motorola, Palm, RIM
add a comment
RESTON, VA, March 10, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month period between October 2009 and January 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 age 13 and older, as well as popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber’s primary mobile phone. The January report found Motorola to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.9 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 43.0 percent market share.
OEM Market Share
In the 3 month average ending in January, 234 million Americans were mobile subscribers ages 13 and older, with device manufacturer Motorola ranking as the top OEM with 22.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers. LG ranked second with 21.7 percent share, followed by Samsung (21.1 percent share), Nokia (9.1 percent share) and RIM (7.8 percent share).
| Top Mobile OEMs 3 Month Avg. Ending Jan. 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Oct. 2009 Total U.S. Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens |
|||
| Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers | |||
| Oct-09 | Jan-10 | Point Change | |
| Total Mobile Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| Motorola | 24.1% | 22.9% | -1.2 |
| LG | 22.0% | 21.7% | -0.3 |
| Samsung | 21.0% | 21.1% | 0.1 |
| Nokia | 9.3% | 9.1% | -0.2 |
| RIM | 6.4% | 7.8% | 1.4 |
Smartphone Platform Market Share
42.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones in an average month during the November to January period, up 18 percent from the August through October period. RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 43.0 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, rising 1.7 percentage points versus three months earlier. Apple ranked second with 25.1 percent share (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by Microsoft at 15.7 percent, Google at 7.1 percent (up 4.3 percentage points), and Palm at 5.7 percent. Google’s Android platform continues to see rapid gains in market share.
| Top Smartphone Platforms 3 Month Avg. Ending Jan. 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Oct. 2009 Total U.S. Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens |
|||
| Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers | |||
| Oct-09 | Jan-10 | Point Change | |
| Total Smartphone Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| RIM | 41.3% | 43.0% | 1.7 |
| Apple | 24.8% | 25.1% | 0.3 |
| Microsoft | 19.7% | 15.7% | -4.0 |
| 2.8% | 7.1% | 4.3 | |
| Palm | 7.8% | 5.7% | -2.1 |
Mobile Content Usage
In an average month during the November through January 2010 time period, 63.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.5 percentage points versus three months prior. Browsers were used by 28.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 1.8 percentage points), while subscribers who played games made up 21.7 percent (up 0.4 percentage points). Access of social networking sites or blogs experienced strong gains in the past three months, growing 3.3 percentage points to 17.1 percent of mobile subscribers.
| Mobile Content Usage 3 Month Avg. Ending Jan. 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Oct. 2009 Total U.S. Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens |
|||
| Share (%) of U.S. Mobile Subscribers | |||
| Oct-09 | Jan-10 | Point Change | |
| Total Mobile Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| Sent text message to another phone | 62.0% | 63.5% | 1.5 |
| Used browser | 26.8% | 28.6% | 1.8 |
| Played games | 21.3% | 21.7% | 0.4 |
| Used Downloaded Apps | 18.3% | 19.8% | 1.5 |
| Accessed Social Networking Site or Blog | 13.8% | 17.1 % | 3.3 |
| Listened to music on mobile phone | 11.6% | 12.8% | 1.2 |
via comScore Reports January 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share – comScore, Inc.
Behind the Smartphone Craze: redrawing the map of mobile platforms February 2, 2010
Posted by andre in Mobile & Gadgets.Tags: Android, Apple, bada, Blackberry, BrewMP, Business, Feature Phone, Google, HTC, iPhone, LG, LiMo, Maemo, Market, Mobile, Nexus, Nokia, Palm, RIM, Samsung, Smartphone, Symbian, Trends, WebOS, Windows Mobile
add a comment
Thought Android and iPhone are taking over the world? Think again. The device platforms map is more fragmented than ever, while the media hype distorts the commercial reality. […]
The Smartphone Craze
The other day I was reading some of the usual hype-induced reports on the Smartphone revolution. Wanting to put things into perspective I pulled out some old Smartphone forecasts from 2004-2005 by the likes of IDC, Informa and Ovum.
In those pre-historic days the main Smartphone contenders were Symbian and Windows. Blackberry was still an insignificant niche, and touch screen devices were still clunky stylus based UIQ phones and iPAQs. Yet surprisingly, the average Smartphone share of shipments that was forecast for 2010 was …about 30%. So even without the Apple & Google revolution fanning the flames, many analysts believed in the mass migration to Smartphones.
Reality check: by looking at the numbers for the first three quarters of 2009, it appears that last year there have shipped no more than 170-180 million devices considered to be Open OS Smartphones. Indeed Symbian, Windows, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, WebOS, LiMO and Maemo taken all together still only constitute about 15-17% of shipments. This percentage is in fact much lower than the 2009 Smartphone share predicted a few years ago by many research companies. […]
The bets are spreading
As of late 2009, the only companies who are shipping true Open OS Smartphones in mass volumes are Nokia (Symbian), RIM (Blackberry), Apple (iPhone) and HTC (Windows Mobile, now Android). This will no doubt start to change over the course of time as Android shipments start to ramp up and the rest of the platforms realize their growth potential, but it is still not an overnight revolution.
Looking forward, this thesis shows that the market will be much more diverse than the simplistic notion that everyone either wants an App Store capable iPhone or Droid, or alternatively, an ultra-low cost phone to make phone calls. There is many more commercial dynamics at play, making up a complex platform map which is driven by customer ownership.
In 2009 the number of available device software platforms effectively grew, creating more fragmentation in the industry, not less. There are clearly mid-range segments and geographical markets with varying needs, which can be addressed with various software platforms, not necessarily in the traditional view of Smartphones vs. RTOS “dumb phones”. Simply betting on one or two platforms to rule the industry is not a sensible plan.
_______________________________
Read the full article at VisionMobile.com – Behind the Smartphone Craze: redrawing the map of mobile platforms | VisionMobile :: blog
AppleInsider | Motorola passes Apple in brand loyalty among men – study November 25, 2009
Posted by pannet in Mobile & Gadgets.Tags: Apple, Blackberry, iPhone, Motorola, RIM
add a comment
Motorola has exceeded Apple in brand loyalty among men ages 18-and-up since the launch of its new Droid handset, but the iPhone maker has remained well ahead of competitor BlackBerry, according to one study.
According to new, daily tracking statistics from YouGov BrandIndex, Apple dropped from a peak score of 48.1 in the month of November to a score of 22 last week. That took it below Motorola, which remained relatively static from its month-long peak of 32.3, finishing last week with a score of 29.3.The study's scale ranges from -100 to 100, based on interviews conducted with 5,000 people each weekday from a representative U.S. population sample. YouGov conducts more than 1.2 million interviews per year, selected from an online panel of more than 1.5 million unique individuals. The study has a margin of error of +/- 2 percent.The company said its survey demonstrates that Motorola has likely come out on top of the ongoing advertising dispute between Verizon and AT&T.”Motorola has seen its brand loyalty unaffected by AT&T's lawsuits against Verizon Wireless and ad war bashing,” YouGov said. “But it seems to have taken a toll on Blackberry, which has withered under all the Droid/iPhone marketing and hype.”
via AppleInsider | Motorola passes Apple in brand loyalty among men – study.
AdMob Data Reveals Android’s Growth, Device Market Share November 23, 2009
Posted by pannet in Mobile & Gadgets.Tags: AdMob, Android, Apple, Google, HTC, iPhone, Mobile, Motorola, RIM
add a comment
AdMob, a mobile advertising network, which has been releasing mobile metrics for a while now and touting the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch metrics as headlines, is instead focusing on RIM, Symbian, Android and even Windows Mobile devices in its October 2009 mobile metrics report. I guess when you are soon going to be part of Google, why give arch-nemesis, Apple and its iPhone any airtime. AdMob is in the process of being acquired by Google for $750 million. The report has some interesting facts about Android and gives a rough breakdown on the success or lack there of of various different Android devices. As always, the data from AdMob which serves display and text ads on 15,000 mobile websites and applications, is limited in scope but is broad enough to be a barometer for the larger market trends.
* HTC has taken an early lead, thanks to availability of three different devices.
* Motorola Droid launched on November 6 already represented 24 percent of all Android requests in AdMob’s network worldwide even though the device is available only in the US.
* Worldwide requests from Android devices increased 5.8 times since April 2009 in the AdMob network.
* In the US, Android has 20 percent share of smartphone traffic versus 7 percent in April 2009.
* The Motorola CLIQ generated 6% of Android traffic worldwide as on November 18th 2009.
* Worldwide requests from RIM devices increased 44 percent over the last six months in the AdMob network.
Just to be sure, AdMob does include data about iPhone in its report. the iPhone and iPod Touch collectively accounted for about 33 percent of total requests up 6.9 percent for the month. In US, the total share of Apple is about 35 percent, up 7.5 percent for the month.
via AdMob Data Reveals Android’s Growth, Device Market Share.
Smartphone Success Centers on Software, Not Hardware November 19, 2009
Posted by pannet in Mobile & Gadgets.Tags: Blackberry, HTC, iPhone, Mobile, RIM, Smart Phones, Smartphone, Smartphones
add a comment
Telecom gear vendor ZTE will step up its game in the crowded smartphone space next year with an Android-based handset, and Google is rumored to be working on its own device. But as the smartphone market continues to heat up, manufacturers are learning the hard way that the key to success in mobile phones lies in the software — not the hardware.
Handset manufacturers are increasingly being elbowed out of the way as carriers embrace developers of operating systems and the apps that run on top of them. Motorola, for instance, is an afterthought in Verizon’s big-budget campaign in support of its Droid initiative, and HTC’s brand is nowhere to be found in T-Mobile’s recent commercial pushing the MyTouch 3G. Meanwhile, Nokia continues to fare poorly in the U.S. due largely to its unwillingness to capitulate to American carriers, and smaller manufacturers like Sony Ericsson are becoming irrelevant as they lose market share.
Two phone makers are bucking the trend, though, and they’re doing it by churning out handsets based on their own operating systems. Apple’s iPhone has become an iconic device thanks largely to its intuitive user interface and knockout browser, while Research In Motion continues to gain traction — and mind share — with its BlackBerry, an enterprise-focused handset with software that stresses functionality over fun. Both Apple and RIM are backing their hardware with ad campaigns that put the manufacturer — not the carrier — in front of consumers.
HTC is fighting back with its impressive “You” television commercials, which tout the phone’s Sense user interface and promotes the device’s personalization features. That’s a strategy that will pay dividends as manufacturers become marginalized in mobile, and as software increasingly becomes a key differentiator in the minds of consumers.
Samsung Bada unveiled as new iPhone, Android platform rival November 11, 2009
Posted by andre in Mobile & Gadgets.Tags: Apple, bada, Blackberry, Google Android, HTC, iPhone, LG, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, RIM, Samsung, Smartphones, Sony Ericsson, Symbian, Windows Mobile
add a comment
Samsung, the world’s second largest phone maker globally after Nokia, has announced Bada as its own new smartphone platform which it hopes to use to gain entry into the sophisticated phone market.
Samsung’s Bada, the Korean word for “ocean,” is reportedly built on top of Linux and is expected to be released with an open SDK next month, with the first Bada phones to be introduced early next year. Unlike Symbian or Android, Samsung appears to be developing its new mobile platform and software market solely for the benefit of its own phones, much like RIM, Apple, and Palm.
Searching for a smartphone platform
The company’s current smartphone lineup is about 80% Windows Mobile and 20% Symbian. A year ago, the company released the new Windows Mobile Omnia as its flagship offering, but followed up this year with the Omnia HD using Symbian instead, a move identical to Sony Ericsson’s release of the Windows Mobile Xperia X1 followed by this year’s Symbian-based Idou.
Also like Sony Ericsson, Samsung announced plans earlier this year to back Android instead of Symbian in the future, with an announcement that 30% of its phones next year would use Android. That expansion was expected to come from reduced use of Windows Mobile, but now Samsung is indicating that it will phase out Symbian entirely, drastically reduce the use of Windows Mobile, and introduce the new Bada as its preferred smartphone operating system.
HMC investment securities analyst Greg Noh outlined Samsung’s expected smartphone mix showing Symbian completely phased out by 2011, and Samsung’s own Bada making up half of its portfolio by 2012, with the remainder being about 30% Android and 20% Windows Mobile.
Another big phone maker eyes a world outside of Android
In the general mobile phone market, Samsung has been making incremental progress toward leader Nokia with around 20% of the global phone market. It currently sells more phones than the rest of the top five makers (LG, Sony Ericsson and Motorola) combined. In smartphones however, Samsung has just recently broke into the top five vendors, well behind Nokia, RIM, Apple, and HTC with sales of just 1.4 million in the most recent quarter, the same figure as last year. With the growth in smartphones, that contributed to Samsung’s market share of advanced phones actually slipping slightly year over year.
Android advocates widely expected Samsung to warmly adopt Google’s platform, as it provides a free alternative to the Windows Mobile software the company currently uses. Instead, Samsung is following Nokia’s lead in working to maintain its own destiny independent of Google. Nokia is both sponsoring the Symbian Foundation and its own Maemo Linux distribution.
Samsung’s interest in creating and managing its own smartphone platform also reflects the interests of second place smartphone vendor RIM and its BlackBerry OS, and Apple in third place with the iPhone. Palm has followed a similar strategy with its own proprietary WebOS.
Is a smartphone vendor experienced with using third party software from Microsoft and Symbian, Samsung’s interest in developing and maintaining its own proprietary platform rather than trying to adapt Android to create differentiated phones in a competitive market is a dramatic refutal of the conventional thinking that Android will explode among vendors next year.
Instead, Samsung’s considerable resources will be devoted toward its own new platform, creating more competition and differentiation in options among smartphone platforms and reducing the energy being channeled toward licensed operating systems, with Windows Mobile being the biggest loser (with the loss of around 1.2 million of the 3.6 million Windows Mobile phones that shipped in Q3 2009), Symbian losing a significant licensee entirely, and Android facing a rival new marketplace for mobile software.
Samsung expects to release more information to developers about its SDK plans next month via its Bada website.
via AppleInsider | Samsung Bada unveiled as new iPhone, Android platform rival
Forecasting the OS future – FierceDeveloper October 20, 2009
Posted by pannet in Mobile & Gadgets.Tags: Android, Apple, Blackberry, iPhone, Market Trends, Mobile, Nokia, RIM, Symbian, Windows Mobile
add a comment
Apple reported its fiscal fourth quarter earnings Monday, stating it sold 7.4 million iPhones during the period, up from 6.9 million units sold in the year-ago quarter and ahead of Wall Street’s expectation of around 7 million units. Market research firm iSuppli notes that the iPhone was responsible for 12.1 percent of global smartphone shipments in the second calendar quarter of 2009, up from 10.1 percent in the first quarter, and although it hasn’t finalized its third-quarter market share figures, expectations are the iPhone continued its upward trend over the last three months. iSuppli adds that while worldwide smartphone unit shipments are set to grow by 11.6 percent in calendar year 2009 compared to 2008, iPhone shipments are set to increase by 37 percent this year.
But looking beyond 2009, research firm Gartner forecasts that by 2012, Android–which currently represents less than 2 percent of all smartphones sold–will grow to 18 percent of worldwide smartphone OS market share, accounting for 94.5 million of the expected 525 million smartphones sold three years from now. While the iPhone will generate sales of 71.5 million in 2012, its overall market share is only expected to grow to 13.6 percent between now and then–Symbian, with an anticipated 196.5 million units sold in 2012, will represent 37.4 percent of worldwide OS market share, while BlackBerry, at 73 million units sold, will edge past iPhone to account for 13.9 percent. (The big loser in Gartner’s forecast: Windows Mobile, which will generate anticipated 2012 sales of 47.7 million–just 9 percent of the global market.)
Gartner isn’t the only firm predicting the iPhone’s dominance will wane in the years ahead–according to Ovum, while the App Store is presently responsible for about 70 percent of the total application download market, its share will decline to less than 20 percent by 2014. Ovum expects the total number of application downloads (including both free and premium applications) will grow from 491 million worldwide in 2008 to 18.7 billion in 2014, a CAGR of 83 percent across the forecast period. Ovum estimates that the global market will grow by a CAGR of 153 percent between 2008 and 2011 before dropping to around 33 percent between 2011 and 2014, a decline blamed on the emergence of browser-based services and other substitutes for app downloads. Whether you agree or disagree with the Gartner and Ovum forecasts, it does seem like the smartphone market is about to enter a distinct new phase in its evolution, galvanized by a groundswell of operator and manufacturer support for Android–no one’s suggesting the last few years have been boring, but it looks like things are about to get even more interesting.
Demand for smartphone continues to explode September 1, 2009
Posted by andre in Mobile & Gadgets.Tags: Android, Apple, Blackberry, Business, iPhone, Market, Nokia, RIM, Smartphone, Trends
add a comment
As expected, the global demand for smartphones rose through Q2 ‘09, with analysts predicting continued growth over the next eight quarters.
Nokia still has control of the global smartphone market, with 44.3 percent control, shipping 16.9 million units during Q2. Research In Motion (RIM) with its BlackBerry line of smartphones controls 20.9 percent of the market, with Apple trailing in third place, with 13.7 percent of the market, according to research firm Canalysis.
Apple sold 5.2 million iPhone 3GS and 3G smartphones during Q2, though now faces issues related to overheating and exploding phones.
via Demand for smartphone continues to explode CDFreaks
Smartphone sales up 27% August 21, 2009
Posted by andre in Mobile & Gadgets.Tags: Android, Business, Gartnet, iPhone, Market Research, Mobile, Nokia, RIM, Smartphones, Symbian, Windows Mobile
add a comment
According to market research firm Gartner, worldwide mobile phone sales declined 6% to 286 million units in the second quarter. However smartphone sales were a bright spot posting a 27% gain. Smartphone penetration was 14%, up from 10% a year ago. The chart below shows the change in smartphone share by manufacturer over the last year. Although Nokia still dominates with 45% share, Apple was the big winner last year with an increase in share from 3% to 13%.
Source: Gartner, August 2009
The pie chart below shows the smartphone data cut by operating system, with the iPhone OS now ahead of Windows Mobile.
Source: Gartner, August 2009
Gartner also states that Palm is in 10th place in the smartphone market and sold 205,000 Palm Pre units in Q2. Please note that this data from Gartner is based on the number of units devices sold, a much different methodology than is used to calculate share of mobile web usage each month in our Mobile Metrics Report.
via Smartphone sales up 27% « AdMob Metrics
Analyst: Apple to Sell 80+ Million iPhones in 2012, Snag 5.7% of Total Mobile Phone Market August 18, 2009
Posted by hruf in Mobile & Gadgets.Tags: Android, Apple, Google, iPhone, Market Trends, Mobile, Nokia, RIM
add a comment
In an extensive research report on the smartphone industry released this morning, RBC Capital Markets reveals a “new world order” in which smartphones embracing the convergence of communication, computing, and content are becoming the “next wave” of computing. Based on this evidence, RBC sees smartphones, led by Apple, Research in Motion and Palm, taking a larger share of mobile phone sales than previously predicted, and even capturing users, revenue and market share from other markets such as the PC, TV, media player, digital camera, gaming, and navigation markets previously considered discrete market segments.
RBC sees the possibility for 4-5 smartphone “leaders”, each carving out a fairly distinct market segment on which to focus.
- Apple as having staked out the “media-centric” segment
- Research in Motion having grabbed the “productivity-centric” segment
- one other maybe “PIM-centric” focused on personal organization
- one other maybe “cloud-centric” based on data-heavy users taking advantage of web-based e-mail, social networking and other web-based services
- “specialized” market for devices that excel in one specific area such as e-books, gaming, or navigation
Image from RBC Capital Markets
(“TAM” refers to Total Addressable Market)
Liquid Media 