For the first time, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry platform has dropped to third in market share among smartphone users, behind Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone platforms, according to a report by metrics company comScore Inc. released Friday.
Android-equipped smartphones accounted for 36.4 percent of U.S. smartphone users 13 and up for the three-month period ending in April. That’s a 5.2 percentage point rise in market share from the three-month period ending in January. At the same time, Apple’s iPhones rose to second in market share with a 1.3 percentage point rise, to 26 percent.
The BlackBerry platform lost nearly as much market share as Android gained: down 4.7 percentage points to 25.7 percent. Android first eclipsed BlackBerry — the previous market leader — in January’s report.
Overall, smartphone use among those 13 and up in the U.S. rose 13 percent in the three months ending in April compared to the three months ending in January, to 74.6 million people.
| Top smartphone platforms | % market share (three-month period ending in Jan. ’11) | % market share (three-month period ending in April ’11) | Percentage point change |
| 31.2% | 36.4% | +5.2% | |
| Apple | 24.7% | 26.0% | +1.3% |
| RIM | 30.4% | 25.7% | -4.7% |
| Microsoft | 8.0% | 6.7% | -1.3% |
| Palm | 3.2% | 2.6% | -0.6% |
Source: comScore.
