53.4 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in July, up 11 percent from the corresponding April period. RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 39.3 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 23.8 percent share. Google saw significant growth during the period, rising 5.0 percentage points to capture 17.0 percent of smartphone subscribers. Microsoft accounted for 11.8 percent of Smartphone subscribers, while Palm rounded out the top five with 4.9 percent. Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.
The survey also collected data about mobile content usage. Texting is by far the most popular activity with two out of three US mobile subscribers doing it on their phone, while browsing the web and downloading apps are done by roughly one third of mobile subscribers. Just over one fifth uses phones to play games of access social networking sites, and just 14.5 percent listens to music on mobile phones.