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RIM remains biggest smartphone platform in US with 43% of market

Google rising fast too

RIM remains biggest smartphone platform in US with 43% of market
It appears to be 'as you were' in much of the US mobile market according to the latest research compiled by comScore's MobiLens venture.

With Motorola holding on to its market leading position despite a slight dip in its share, the firm's report for February shows very little movement from the major OEMs and smartphone platforms based on the previous month's findings.

Mighty Moto

In terms of the standard mobile market, Motorola holds a 22.3 percent share, giving it the edge over LG on 21.7 percent and Samsung on 21.4 percent in what is essentially a three-way tie at the top.

However, while Samsung has actually expanded its share by 0.4 percent across the monitoring period – which ran from November 2009 to February 2010 - and LG has held firm, the market leader's position continues to weaken.

 

Motorola's share actually fell by 1.9 percent across the four months and is also down 0.6 percent when compared to the January MobiLens report.



RIM, however, continues to benefit from fairly major growth, its share climbing by 1.7 percent to 8.2 percent – putting it on the coattails of Nokia, just 0.5 percent ahead.

Swinging back and forth

In terms of smartphone platforms, RIM also has much to celebrate.

ComScore claims BlackBerry handsets account for 42.1 percent of the US smartphone market – its share rising by 1.3 percent across the four months.

However, such a figure actually represents a drop of almost 1 percent from the January MobiLens report.

Apple's share, too, appears to be fluctuating, falling slightly by 0.1 percent to 25.4 percent in the February report, but rising by 0.3 percent based on comScore's findings for the previous month.



Google's Android continues to be the platform with the most momentum, however, its share rising from 3.8 percent in November to 9.0 percent in February.

The rate of growth is also increasing, up from 4.3 percent in the previous report to 5.2 percent in the latest findings.

As such, it could be just a few months before Google surpasses Microsoft to become the third biggest smartphone player in the US.

You can view a summary of the findings for free on comScore's website.

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.