U.S. iPhone adoption growth remains strong, Android slowing down

ComScore has published their research of the U.S. smartphone market for April 2012, and found that Samsung is still the top U.S. mobile manufacturer, while Apple is trailing in third place. Still, Apple is moving in on LG's second place; U.S. mobile market share (that includes smartphones and dumbphones) for the iPhone has grown 1.6 points to 14.4%, while LG has shrunk half a point to 19.2%.

The research also indicates that among smartphone platforms, Android experienced its lowest adoptions rates in Q1 2012 since 2009. That's good news for iOS, which is still enjoying steady growth, but has resulted in plateauing smartphone adoption overall. Apparently there were 300,000 new smartphone users every week in April, compared to 1.5 million every week in November. That is, indeed, a sharp dive. At this rate, iOS is growing nearly as fast as Android; during the same three-month period, iOS grew 1.9 points, while Android climbed 2.2. Of course, the installed base of Android users in the U.S. is still significantly higher than iPhone, thanks in no small part to the army of manufacturers churning out new devices every day. As you might expect, the BlackBerry OS market share is down yet again, currently commanding 11.6%, down 3.6 points since January.

I still find it hugely impressive that Apple is competing so strongly in the overall mobile market in the U.S. Samsung and LG are churning out tons of very affordable phones, both simple feature handsets as well as smartphones, while a very small selection of iPhones (including one from 2009) can still give them a run for their money. As for Android growth petering out, I wouldn't count on it being permanent just yet, since U.S. smartphone penetration is set to cross the 50% line this summer, meaning there is still a healthy number of dumbphone users that need to upgrade.

How many of your friends don't own a smartphone? Do you figure Android has any particular appeal to them, or does Apple have a big head start when it comes to being noob-friendly?

Source: comScore via Asymco

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