Mobile OS Research: Google's Android On The Rise

Latest research shows Google's Android mobile operating system to have dramatically risen in popularity since last October promoting it to the number one smartphone operating system.

A recent study by comScore MobiLens among 30,000 US mobile subscribers found the Android OS to have increased market share by a whopping 7.7% since October 2010.  RIM's Blackberry device OS has lost ground falling 5 percentage points to 30.4%.

Apple's iOS holds strong with a quarter of the smartphone market share with virtually no gain since last October.

Interestingly Microsoft's OS, despite the much hyped launch of the Windows 7 Mobile phones last December, has seen an almost two point decrease in market share moving from 9.7% in Ocotober to 8% this January.

Top Mobile Manufacturers

Samsung and LG hold onto first and second place as top mobile manufacturers.  Despite everyone-and-his-dog seemingly having an iPhone, the comScore survey shows in actuality only 7% of US mobile subscribers own an Apple handset.

Mobile Content Usage

How do we use mobile content?  Text messaging, of course!  68% of US mobile subscribers use their phones to send text messages to other people.

37% of us use our phones to access the Internet by means of the browser and 35% of us report we download apps.

Only a quarter of US mobile subscribers report using their phones to access social networking sites which may initially seem a little low.  However, a high proportion of mobile phones are not smartphones and cannot take advantage of dedicated social networking apps as Android, Blackberry and iOS users can.

What do you think?  Will Android continue to grow?  What does this mean for RIM and Apple?

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