Google’s Android OS hits 43% market share. Apple’s iOS share remained at 28% ahead of its i5 launch.Google’s Android OS commanded 43 % of U.S. smartphone market share through August.
With dozens of Android sets to choose from in the United States, some 56 % of U.S. consumers were having Androids. Apple’s iOS remained at 28 % for the second month in a row, while RIM’s BlackBerry fell to 18 % from 19 % in the prior month.
The flat sales trajectory for the iPhone should be short lived. Apple, which has sold more than 100 million iPhones worldwide, is expected to launch an i5 with a faster processor, 8 megapixel camera and several interesting software features at an event on its Cupertino, Calif., campus Oct. 4.
The arrival of the i5 — it’s unclear yet whether it will appear on AT&T; and Verizon in October or November — should provide an interesting battle versus Samsung’s Galaxy S II. The S II launched on Sprint Sept. 16, and is coming to AT&T; on Oct. 2 and T-Mobile on Oct. 10. The S II, which has a 1.2 GHz, dual-core processor (1.5 GHz on T-Mobile’s version), uses Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus technology to provide the company’s brightest display.
Regardless of how the S II and iPhone 5, as well as their predecessors fare in the United States, the smartphone share in the market is rising. Some 43 percent of all mobile subscribers in the United States had a smartphone through August, though 58 percent of those who got a new device in the last three months chose a smartphone over a feature phone.
In any event, the growing popularity of app-and-media friendly smartphones spells tremendous opportunity for those advertisers, publishers and developers eager to leverage mobile media. Also The top 50 Android apps take up 60 to 65 percent of smartphone users time. Typical smartphone users enjoy apps such as Angry Birds, FaceBook and Twitter.
