Android Has More Check-In Users Than Apple, But Just Barely

Android has almost a 10% lead over Apple in the smartphone market share race, but its lead in check-in activity is a lot smaller according to a new comScore report out today.

According to comScore, Android’s overall US smartphone market share is 34.7%, compared to 25.5 for Apple. But Android’s lead in check-in activity over Apple is less than three percent — 36.6% of check-in service users are on Android, compared to 33.7% who are on Apple’s platform.

RIM accounts for 22% of check-in users, comScore says, while Microsoft, Palm and Symbian are all less than 5% of that audience.

Almost 1 in 5 Smartphone Owners Use Check-In Services

In the bigger picture, comScore says 16.7 mobile users in the US used check-in services in March 2011 — that’s 7.1% of the entire mobile user population. Of those check-in users, 12.7 million were using smartphones, which is 17.6% of the smartphone population.

About 76% of all check-in users are on smartphones, comScore says.

comScore also shared demographic breakdowns of check-in service users:

• 51% are female, 49% are male
• 59% are between 18 and 34 years old
• 5% are aged 55 or older
• 47% are employed full-time
• 23% are full-time students

comScore’s measurements cover the first three months of 2011.