Skip to main content

Mobile Voice Over Wi-Fi Starts to Get Very Interesting

If you're thinking of holding on to your current smartphone because there's no compelling reason to upgrade, well you're not alone. The smartphone market in America has plateaued, now that most mobile network service providers removed phone subsidies and Apple offers unlocked iPhones directly to consumers (bypassing the U.S. wireless carriers).

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).


Popular posts from this blog

The Smartphone Market's Premium Pivot

The global smartphone market closed 2025 with a story less about recovery and more about transformation. Premium product, ecosystem lock-in, and manufacturing scale are now the forces shaping competition. For business and technology leaders, the latest IDC market study data confirms that smartphones remain a critical indicator of consumer demand, supply chain health, and AI commercialization at the edge. Smartphone Market Development Global smartphone shipments grew 2.3 percent year-over-year in Q4 2025, reaching 336.3 million units and bringing full-year volumes to 1.26 billion units — a modest 1.9 percent annual increase, according to IDC. This smartphone growth emerged despite a memory shortage crisis, tariff volatility, supply chain disruption, and macroeconomic headwinds. What stabilized demand? Two factors: sustained growth in premium devices and strong foldable momentum, combined with accelerated purchases as consumers bought ahead of anticipated price increases. Buyers weren...