2011 was a big year for smartphones. And Apple held onto its lead with the top three phones.
This is the word from market researcher comScore’s new report “2012 Mobile Future in Focus.” To download the report, go to comScore.
Nearly 42 percent of Americans now have smartphone compared with 44 percent in Europe’s top five countries, the EU5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom).
In its report, HuffPo emphasized that Apple dominated smartphone sales last year. “The iPhone 4 was the most purchased phone, followed by the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4S in third. This last ranking is especially impressive since the iPhone 4S’s numbers were based on only two months of sales,” Huffington Post said.
The Apple phones were followed by RIM’s BlackBerry Curve 8530, which came in fourth, and the HTC-EVO 4G, which runs on Android and placed fifth. “Android’s operating system still dominates the U.S. smartphone market. However: it claims 47.3 percent of market, while Apple’s iOS platform came in second with 30 percent of the market.”
Huff said: “The coming year could be a make it or break it one for the smartphone industry as mobile companies compete for the tens of millions of feature phone owners who will likely make the switch to smartphones in the coming years.”
ComScore noted an upsurge in apps: “Mobile media usage – defined as browsing the mobile web, accessing applications, or downloading content – saw a surge in activity and surpassed 50 percent penetration in many markets, supported the proliferation of high-speed networks and increased public Wi-Fi availability.”
Engaging with mobile media – defined as browsing the mobile web, accessing applications or downloading content – increased in penetration by 9.2 percentage points across the EU5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom) and 11.6 percent in the U.S. The U.S. ranked third with 55.2 percent share of mobile users in terms of engaging mobile media, exceeded by Japan with 76.2 percent and Britain with 56.6 percent.
ComScore said: “The strong rise in penetration of mobile media usage and continued adoption of different means of accessing digital content indicate significant opportunity for content creators, publishers and app developers as this behavior becomes even more ubiquitous.”
