Smartphones Have Outsize Impact on Mobility Business

Despite the fact that smartphones have only about 19 percent share of the U.S. handset market, they have outsize importance simply because smartphone use is growing so fast, implies growth of mobile broadband revenue and is key to the hopes new suppliers have for cracking the handset market.

Browsers were used by 29.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.4 percentage points), while subscribers who used downloaded applications made up 27.5 percent (up 1.8 percentage points).

Some 18 percent used social networking sites or blogs, up 2.9 percentage points to 18 percent of mobile subscribers. About 13 percent report they listened to music on a mobile device. About 22 percent say they played games on their mobiles., up about half a percentage point.

Some 234 million Americans age 13 and older were mobile subscribers, while 45.4 million people owned smartphones in an average month during the December to February period, up 21 percent from the three months ending November 2009.

In an average month during the December through February 2010 time period, 64 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.9 percentage points from November 2009 levels, says comScore.

Those differences also are reflected in market share of feature and smartphones. In the broader feature phone market, Motorola has 22 percent share, LG 22 percent, Samsung 21 percent, Nokia nine percent and Research in Motion eight percent.

In the smartphone market RIM has 42 percent share, Apple 25 percent, Microsoft 15 percent, Google nine percent and Palm five percent. Google grew the most over the quarter ending in February, gaining five share points. Apple's share was flat and Microsoft lost five points.