In addition, the ongoing use of Facebook Messenger app is negatively impacting the legacy SMS revenue stream. When you combine that with the ongoing adoption of other popular mobile messaging software -- such as WhatsApp -- the trend is really troubling to mobile operators.
Besides, considering the outlook for Voice over Wi-Fi apps -- such as Google Hangouts Dialer -- the escalating OTT bypass trend now has the potential to cause a major market disruption. More mobile subscribers could downgrade to calling plans with fewer bundled cell network voice minutes.
That being said, comScore released data from its latest study of key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for August 2015. Once again, Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 44.1 percent OEM market share.
Meanwhile, Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 51.7 percent platform market share. Moreover, Facebook ranked as the top individual smartphone software application.
Smartphone OEM Market Share
191.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (77.1 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in August. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 44.1 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (that's up 0.6 percentage points from May).
Samsung ranked second with 27.4 percent market share, followed by LG with 9.1 percent (that's up 0.9 percentage points), Motorola with 4.7 percent and HTC with 3.4 percent.
Smartphone Platform Market Share
Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform in August with 51.7 percent market share, followed by Apple with 44.1 percent (that's up 0.6 percentage points from May), Microsoft with 2.9 percent, BlackBerry with 1.2 percent and Symbian with 0.1 percent.
Top Smartphone Software Apps
Facebook ranked as the top smartphone app, reaching 75.4 percent of the app audience (up from 73.3 percent the prior month), followed by Facebook Messenger (59.8 percent), YouTube (59.5 percent) and Google Play (52.1 percent).
