It"s no secret that Android has been making headlines over the last year or so, the mobile operating system has enjoyed constant and significant growth in markets all over the world and it doesn"t look to be slowing down any time soon.
comScore, a company that specialises in measuring all things digital, have released some information on the growth and marketshare of the various mobile operating systems and manufacturers in the US.
Of the various mobile operating systems out there, the only ones to see growth over the last quarter were Android and iOS. Apple"s iOS grew by 0.5% to take 25.5% of the market, while Android grew a respectable 6% to 34.7% of the market.
Sadly, things weren"t as good for Microsoft or RIM, who are continuing to lose ground against the competition. RIM still holds a larger marketshare than Apple, but are also declining rapidly - 4.5% over the previous quarter. If this trend continues, Apple will supercede them by the end of this quarter.
The big winners in all this are the handset manufacturers. Samsung, LG and Motorola are the top 3 and all produce a number of popular Android phones. Interestingly, however, none of them actually experienced any growth with Apple being the only manufacturer in the Top 5 gaining ground here, likely due to the iPhone finally arriving on a network other than AT&T.
Android may still be growing, but its popularity has attracted a lot of manufacturers who will all be fighting to take as much growth as possible. With companies like ZTE coming into the mix, who have made a name for themselves by producing cheap, affordable smartphones, the already-crowded smartphone market is going to get even more cramped.
There are some more interesting details and statistics, such as how people are actually using their phones, over at PRNewswire.