It’s getting awfully close to 50 percent. Google’s Android OS now represents 46.3 percent of the US smartphone market according to the
most recent data from comScore. Apple’s iPhone is now 28 percent of the market. However the iPhone 4S is selling extremely well and may boost Apple’s numbers in future releases. In August Android had 43 percent of the market.
Nielsen says that 44 percent of US mobile users own smartphones. InsightExpress survey data show the number to be 41 percent. And comScore asserts the number is 38 percent (based on 90 million smartphone users against a base of 234 million adult mobile subscribers). ComScore previously released a larger figure (I believe 41 percent), although I cannot find a reference to that at the moment.
It will be interesting to see how the market — and regulators — react once Android passes the 50 percent threshold, which should happen in Q1 next year. However, unlike iOS the Android ecosystem is very fragmented, something made worse by the success of the quasi-Android Kindle Fire (which reportedly has shipped or sold 4 million to date).
Regardless, Google continues to benefit from the rise of smartphones and mobile search volumes. The company previously announced a $2.5 billion mobile advertising revenue run rate. Earlier this week, coming off the US Thanksgiving weekend, Google reported that within the retail vertical, “mobile (Smartphone + Tablet) search volume on Black Friday 2011 was over 200% higher than it was on Black Friday 2010.“
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