Google’s Android smartphones took the top spot in the U.S. for the first time, hitting 31.2% in the latest comScore survey of 30,000 subscribers.
ComScore’s results, for October 2010 through January 2011, put Android slightly higher at 31.2% than did a recent Nielsen survey of 14,000 subscribers from the same period that showed Android hitting the top spot with 29%. ComScore’s latest results for Android showed it surging to 31.2% from 23.5% in its three-month survey ending in October 2010.
ComScore’s latest survey also bumped down Research in Motion’s BlackBerry by 5.4% points to 30.4%, putting it in second place behind Android. Apple ‘s iPhone was third and stayed flat from the last report, at 24.7%.
Microsoft finished fourth at 8%, down 1.7% points from the October result, while Palm declined 0.7% points to 3.2%, comScore said.
The top mobile handset manufacturer in the November-January ComScore report was again Samsung with 24.9%, followed by LG with 20.8%, Motorola with 16.5%, RIM with 8.6% and Apple with 7%. Apple and RIM only make smartphones , but the others make an array of cell phones including smartphones.
ComScore’s results again showed texting is by far the biggest use of a cell phone (68%), followed by using a browser (37%), downloading apps (35.3%), accessing social networks (25.3%), playing games (23.7%) and listening to music (16.5%).
ComScore’s results are based on surveys of subscribers age 13 and older.
