comScore released data about the key trends within the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending February 2011. Their latest market study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers.
For the three month period ending February, 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 0.3 percentage points from the three month period ending in November.
LG ranked second with 20.9 percent share, followed by Motorola (16.1 percent) and RIM (8.6 percent). Apple saw the strongest gain, up 0.9 percentage points to account for 7.5 percent of subscribers.
69.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in February 2011 -- up 13 percent from the preceding three-month period. Google Android grew 7.0 percentage points since November, strengthening its number one position with 33.0 percent market share.
RIM ranked second with 28.9 percent market share, followed by Apple with 25.2 percent. Microsoft (7.7 percent) and Palm (2.8 percent) rounded out the top five.
In February, 68.8 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device. Browsers were used by 38.4 percent of subscribers (up 3.1 percentage points), while downloaded applications were used by 36.6 percent of the mobile audience (up 3.2 percentage points).
Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 3.3 percentage points, representing 26.8 percent of mobile subscribers. Playing games represented 24.6 percent of the mobile audience, while listening to music represented 17.5 percent.
