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63.2 Million People in the U.S. Own Smartphones

comScore reported key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending December 2010. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S. market.

The December report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 24.8 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 31.6 percent market share.

For the three month average period ending in December, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices.

Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 24.8 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up 1.3 percentage points from the three month period ending in September. LG ranked second with 20.9 percent share, followed by Motorola (16.7 percent), RIM (8.5 percent) and Nokia (7.0 percent).

63.2 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in December 2010, up 60 percent versus year ago.

RIM led the ranking with 31.6 percent market share of smartphones, while Google Android maintained the #2 position with 28.7 percent, up 7.3 percentage points versus September. Apple accounted for 25.0 percent of smartphone subscribers (up 0.7 percentage points), followed by Microsoft with 8.4 percent and Palm with 3.7 percent.

In December, 68.0 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.0 percentage points versus the prior three month period, while browsers were used by 36.4 percent of subscribers (up 1.3 percentage points).

Subscribers who used downloaded applications (apps) comprised 34.4 percent of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 1.3 percentage points.

Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 1.5 percentage points, representing 24.7 percent of mobile subscribers. Playing games attracted 23.2 percent of the mobile audience, while listening to music attracted 15.7 percent.

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