The US will reach over 75% by the year end, with Apple and Android still leading the way in terms of phones and operating systems respectively, according to new data.
According to comScore, smartphone penetration in the March-June quarter continues to inch upwards (up 4%), reaching 71.6%. In total 173 million US residents own a smartphone now.
The data revealed little change in the relative position of device makers, with Apple and Samsung at the lead.
Apple and Samsung combined rule around 68% of the market and are only two in the Top 5 that increased their market share.
Apple remains the biggest smartphone vendor in the US with 42.1% (up 0.7 points) while Samsung is second with 28.6% (up 1.6 points).
LG, Motorola and HTC fill in the rest of the Top 5 with 5-6%, but all three declined slightly during the three month period.
Even though Apple dominates the market, in terms of OS market Share Android powers just over half of all US smartphones, with iOS coming second with 42.1%. Interestingly iOS grew even though the iPhone 5s is getting old and the the iPhone 6 is just over a month away.
In terms of apps, Facebook, YouTube and Google still prove most popular amonst smartphone users in the US, the research found.
The top smartphone app by quite some margin was Facebook – 73.6% of smartphones ran it. The separate Facebook Messenger app is 10th.
Google’s competing social network app Google+ is 15th, installed on a fifth of smartphones. Twitter is an inch ahead while Instagram leads both with 30%.
Tied for second are YouTube and Google Play Store, essentially matching Android’s market share.
Google Maps serves nearly half of the market while Apple Maps is (strangely) guides about a quarter of smartphone users. iTunes Radio/iCloud has a similar market share, this suggests surprisingly few iPhone owners use Apple’s services.
