November 2010 US mobile subscriber market share

The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the US according to their share of current mobile subscribers ages 13 and older, and reviewed the most popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber's primary mobile phone. The November report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 24.5% market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 33.5% market share.

OEM market share

For the three month average period ending in November, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 24.5% of US mobile subscribers, up 0.9 percentage points from the three month period ending in August. LG ranked second with 20.9% share, followed by Motorola (17.0%), RIM (8.8%) and Nokia (7.2%).

Smartphone platform market share

61.5 million people in the US owned smartphones during the three months ending in November, up 10% from the preceding three-month period, as RIM led with 33.5% market share of smartphones. After several months of strong growth, Google Android captured the #2 ranking among smartphone platforms in November with 26.0% of US smartphone subscribers. Apple accounted for 25.0% of smartphone subscribers (up 0.8 percentage points), followed by Microsoft with 9.0% and Palm with 3.9%.

Mobile content usage

In November, 67.1% of US mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 0.5 percentage points versus the prior three month period, while browsers were used by 35.3% of US mobile subscribers (up 0.8% percentage points). Subscribers who used downloaded applications comprised 33.4% of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 1.1 percentage points. Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 1.0 percentage points, representing 23.5% of mobile subscribers. Playing games attracted 22.6% of the mobile audience while listening to music attracted 15.0%.