| Despite tough economic times, the number of U.S. residents using cell phones at the end of September rose 15 percent from June to 58.7 million, comScore said Wednesday. What's more, the percentage of U.S. mobile subscribers downloading applications increased 2.5 percentage points to 33.1 percent. Still, the most popular handset activity continued to be text messaging. According to comScore, 67 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers were texting during the September-ending quarter -- up 1.4 percentage points from the previous three months. The number of subscribers using handsets to browse the web rose 1.5 percentage points to 35.1 percent, comScore reported. Additionally, 23.2 percent of handset users were accessing social-networking sites or blogs on the fly -- an increase of 1.8 percentage points from June. Samsung Leads the Pack Samsung Electronics was the U.S. market's leading cell-phone maker in the third quarter, when the company claimed a 23.5 percent market share. LG Electronics ranked second with a 21.1 percent share, followed by Motorola (18.4 percent), Research In Motion (9.3 percent), and Nokia (7.4 percent), comScore said. For smartphones, RIM's BlackBerry retained its lead with a 37.3 percent share of that market segment, according to the research firm's MobiLens service. Though Apple ranked second with a 24.2 percent share, the iPhone maker's growth was flat in comparison with the previous quarter. By contrast, Google's Android operating system improved its U.S. market standing by a robust 6.5 percent to reach a 21.3 percent market share at the end of September. Moreover, Android was the only major smartphone platform to gain market share in the U.S. during the period. Though Nokia saw its U.S. market share fall 0.7 percent in comparison with the June-ending quarter, CEO Stephen Elop said the world's number-one handset maker is committed to boosting its U.S. handset presence. "There is no systemic reason that Nokia cannot succeed in North America," Elop said. "I believe there is a degree of focus and execution necessary, along with different patterns of doing business that can drive success in that marketplace." Nokia's U.S. Market Woes Elop said Nokia will take steps to ensure local relevance by meeting the U.S. market's unique requirements. "I am going to be spending a great deal of time to make sure that we properly understand how best to engage in that different operating environment," Elop told investors. Among other things, Elop intends to work with the top U.S. carriers, which he noted "have a very particular point of view" about how new products should be introduced. The goal is "to ensure that we show increased flexibility to those partners to ensure that we can be successful with them," explained Elop, who became Nokia's CEO in September. Other than perhaps improving upon its U.S. carrier relationships, however, Gartner Research Vice President Carolina Milanesi sees little chance of Nokia improving its American standing in the short term. "Even if Nokia improves on the product portfolio, its brand in the U.S. needs to be built up," Milanesi said. "And right now it would be a huge struggle given the hype around Android." If Nokia wants to make progress in the U.S. market, Milanesi thinks it will have to forge one or more key partnerships. "The opportunity for Nokia might be with MeeGo and the collaboration with Intel on the high-end portfolio and E-series products, where you have mobile office integration," she said. via TopTechNews |
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