Report: Android Nears 50% US Smartphone Market Share

Metrics firm comScore released new US mobile data today. Google’s Android has increased its market-share lead over everyone else. Now at nearly 44 percent, Google could reach 50 percent US smartphone market penetration by the end of Q4 this year.

The only other smartphone platform to show growth is the iPhone, but it’s less than 1 percent. Compared to other hardware OEMs, Apple showed the most growth however.

ComScore says that roughly 36 percent of US mobile subscribers own a smartphone. Nielsen says that number is closer to 43 percent.

In the US market it’s really a two-horse smartphone race with Android pulling away in the aggregate. However Apple continues to hold its own among individual smartphone vendors.

Another interesting piece of data shows that app usage is pulling even with browser-based activity.

Apple iOS devices have a larger installed base than Android devices in the US, which is a slide that Apple showed yesterday. However Android will soon control more than 50 percent of smartphones in the US and perhaps globally.

This has profound implications for mobile search advertising and for Google.