From an operating system perspective, the big gainer during the three months ending August 31st was Google whose Android operating system is now on one in five (19.6%) smartphones, up from 13% at the end of May.
Comscore claims Android (which drives the Nexus One phone seen here) is now the number three smart smartphone OS. Canada's Research in Motion (RIM) was the still leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. but its share has fallen to 37.6 percent, down from 41.6% three months earlier.
Next up in second spot was Apple at 24.2 percent down marginally from 24.4%. Android was in third spot followed by Microsoft who accounted for 10.8 percent (down 2.4%) of smartphone subscribers. Palm rounded out the top five with 4.6 percent. Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.
The Comscore Android numbers appear to be in line with recent numbers released from Nielsen. In a report issued yesterday, Nielsen said that Android had a 19% share (see chart below) but differed on Apple's and RIM's percentage share.
In looking at just those consumers who bought a smartphone in the past six months, Android was the clear leader with 32% of respondents saying they had bought and Android phone versus 26% for RIM and 25% for Apple.
Regardless of which firms numbers you believe, it’s clear that the Android Smartphone operating system is the big winner in 2010.
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