comScore Reports March U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

comScore, Inc. SCOR today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending March 2011. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 24.5 percent market share. Google GOOG Android led among smartphone platforms with 34.7 percent market share. For the three month average period ending in March, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 24.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers. LG ranked second with 20.9 percent share, followed by Motorola MMI (15.8 percent) and RIM RIMM (8.4 percent). Apple AAPL continued to gain share following the launch of the Verizon VZ iPhone, up 1.1 percentage points to reach 7.9 percent of subscribers. 72.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in March 2011, up 15 percent from the preceding three-month period. Google Android grew 6.0 percentage points to 34.7 percent market share, while RIM ranked second with 27.1 percent. Apple grew 0.5 points to 25.5 percent share, followed by Microsoft MSFT (7.5 percent) and Palm (2.8 percent). In March, 68.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device. Browsers were used by 38.6 percent of subscribers (up 2.2 percentage points), while downloaded applications were used by 37.3 percent (up 2.9 percentage points). Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 2.6 percentage points, representing 27.3 percent of mobile subscribers. Playing games comprised 25.7 percent of the mobile audience, while listening to music represented 17.9 percent.