iPhone News Updated

IPhone, Android Gain Market-Share at Microsoft and Palm’s Expense

IPhone, Android Gain Market-Share at Microsoft and Palm’s Expense

Android and iPhone growth in the U.S. shows no signs of abating, according to a new report by comScore on the state of the U.S. mobile market.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, the report says, is still the most popular smart-phone platform in the U.S., with 41.6% market-share in the quarter ended December, a slight drop from 42.6% in September.

Apple’s share of the smart-phone market rose to 25.3% from 24.1% over the same period, and Google, though still in fifth place, saw its share leap to 5.2% from 2.5%.

On the other hand, Microsoft slipped to 18% share, while Palm saw the biggest losses, with its share dropping to 6.1% from 8.3%, despite recent price cuts that made its devices among the cheapest on the market.

ComScore’s report also says that 63% of U.S. wireless subscribers sent text messages in the latest quarter, a slight increase from September. Also up were the number who surfed the Web (28%) or played games (22%) on their cellphones.

Vendors shipped 54.5 million smart phones world-wide in the fourth quarter, up 39% from the year-earlier period, according to market-research firm IDC.

A significant portion of the global growth can be ascribed to Apple, whose iPhone has grown to 14.4% market-share in 2009, compared with 9.1% a year ago. The company sold 8.7 million iPhones in the fourth quarter, an 18% increase from the prior quarter.

[Thanks: http://blogs.wsj.com]

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