comScore: Android And RIM Smartphone Share Heading In Opposite Directions

ComScore came out with May mobile data for the US market this afternoon. The story line is largely the same as we’ve been hearing for the past several months. Android is up, everyone else is down and the iPhone is holding or slightly growing in its second place position. (However total iOS reach is greater than Android’s.)

The market share numbers in the table above are generally consistent with those previously released by Nielsen:

1. Android: 38 percent
2. iPhone: 27 percent
3. RIM: 21 percent
4. Windows Mobile: 9 percent
5. WebOS: 2 percent
6. Windows Phone: 1 percent

ComScore says that roughly 33 percent of Americans over the age of 13 own smartphones. Nielsen says the number is 38 percent. The two generally agree on the absolute number of mobile phone subscribers (235-ish million), although their numbers are quite a bit lower than those maintained by CTIA, which reports 302 million “wireless subscriber connections” in the US.

The difference between the two firms’ smartphone estimates is 5 points, representing roughly 12 million people in real terms.