Korean companies overtake Motorola for US phone share
updated 02:30 pm EDT, Fri June 4, 2010
LG and Samsung pass Motorola in US share
LG and Samsung have toppled Motorola's longstanding reign as the top-selling phone brand in the US, found today. Although slight, Motorola lost just enough share in the April study to slip to third place at 21.6 percent where Samsung grew enough to take the lead with 22.1 percent. LG just edged its American rival to take 21.8 percent.
RIM's growing influence in smartphones moved it from 7.8 percent to 8.4 percent between January and April to get fourth place, but Nokia's lack of influence in the US dropped it a full point to 8.1 percent.
The changing roles didn't necessarily play into American carriers' hands. Although Motorola is one of its favorite phone providers through the Droid, Verizon shrank a tenth of a point in carrier share to hit 31.1 percent of the market, but AT&T narrowed the gap by increasing slightly to 25.2 percent helped both by the Korean companies and strong domestic iPhone sales. Sprint and T-Mobile are now roughly tied for 12 percent each.
ComScore's study also provided some insight into usage habits in the country. The rise of smartphones helped increase the number of those using the more advanced features of their phones. About 64.6 percent now text message others; 31.1 percent browse the web, and 29.8 percent run third-party apps. Games, social networkign and music also saw extra use.
