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There is finally enough information to try to give an estimate of the smartphone market as a subset of the overall phone market.

The chart to the left shows the overall picture.

To sum up: The smartphone market has now reached over 30% of shipments. Non-smart devices are at 69% of total. The individual phone platform shares are as follows:

1. Android (and Android-like): 17.6%
2. iOS (iPhone only) 4.4%
3. Nokia Symbian: 4.3%
4. BlackBerry: 2.76%
5. Bada: 1%
6. Windows Phone 0.5%

via asymco.com

Do you remember that Gmail for iOS app that popped up a couple of weeks ago — and then got yanked by Google for having broken notifications? It has made its (not-so) triumphant return to the App Store, and is now available to install on your iOS device.

The app isn’t really much of an app. It’s mostly just a wrapper for the Gmail web UI. The biggest additions are attachment support, a mailbox menu that can be accessed by swiping, and (some) push notifications. As with the web app, you will get a tablet-optimized version on the iPad, with the standard mobile UI on an iPhone.

The term “push notifications” should be used with several grains of salt here. This updated Gmail app will succeed in notifying you of new email, but with serious limitations. It doesn’t utilize iOS 5′s improved notifications, and will merely give you an icon badge and an alert sound. That means no banners, no lockscreen alerts, and no Notification Center presence.

Some users will surely find a use for the new Gmail app. There are those who just don’t like the stock iOS Mail app, and may want to mix it up. Fans of Google’s new web UI could appreciate the ability to have that same experience — only with the addition of badge notifications and attachments.

However, it’s hard to deny that this app is disappointing. When such a significant entry from Google is left out of the App Store for so long, you expect something exciting and top-of-the-line when it finally does arrive. Instead, we get the Gmail web app with a couple of extras. All of the negative press that the company will get for this app hardly seems worth it.

Download Gmail for iOS, via Google Mobile Blog

Then we have the operating systems. First, for those who may be here for the first time - remember, I am only counting smartphones, so where for example the iOS operating system also is used on iPad Touch and iPod devices, those are not counted as smartphones. Similarly Android tablets are not included in the Android smartphone numbers here, etc. Bear in mind that I have 'downgraded both Android and bada from the previous numbers, so you may find especially that my Android and bada numbers may be significantly different from numbers reported by some other analysts recently. But I trust my math, so here goes:

1. (1.)    Android (Google)                   56.4 Million    48% (40%)
2. (3.)    Symbian (Nokia)                   18.1 Million    15% (17%)
3. (2.)    iOS (Apple)                           17.1 Million     15% (19%)
4. (4.)    Blackberry OS                      10.7 Million       9% (12%)
5. (5.)    bada (Samsung)                     2.6 Million       2%  ( 2%)
6. (7.)    Windows Phone 7 (Microsoft)  1.3 Million       1%  ( 1%)
7. (6.)    Windows Mobile (Microsoft)     0.4 Million       0%  ( 1%)

(others 11.1 Million)

TOTAL        117.7 Million

For the first time ever, an iPhone is now more likely to show up in a conference room than a BlackBerry, a new Mobile Workforce Report from research firm iPass suggests. According to the report, 95% of mobile workers now own a smartphone, up 10 percentage points from 2010, and 45% of the enterprise workforce carries an iPhone, up from 31.1% last year. “BlackBerry has not really fallen from the top spot in so much as other smartphones have grown faster,” the report said. “BlackBerry market share has only declined slightly from 35% in 2010 to 32% today.” Read on for more.

Android’s market share doubled year over year to surpass Symbian with a 21% share of the enterprise smartphone market. 18% of mobile workers said they intend to purchase an iPhone in 2012, 11.2% are planning to buy an Android device and 3.6% want a Windows Phone. Only 2.3% of workers have plans to buy a BlackBerry next year. Several respondents reported owning multiple devices on different platforms.

The iPass study also found a number of other compelling tidbits: 40% of mobile workers would feel disoriented if they didn’t have a smartphone for a week, 34% would feel distraught and 10% would feel lonely. The iPass study was based on a survey of more than 2,300 workers around the world.

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Tags: Apple, BlackBerry, corporate, iPass, iPhone, RIM, study, survey

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comScore published the latest data regarding US smartphone installed base. To summarize:

• Penetration reached 37.4%, an increase of 2.9 million or 1.24 points of percentage.
• Approximately 650k consumers switched from non-smart to smartphones every week during September
• Based on trailing average of six months’ growth, 50% penetration will be reached by end of September 2012, though the trend is for accelerated adoption (see chart below).

Of the platforms available, Android reached 39 million users, RIM 16.5 million, Apple 24 million and Microsoft about 5 million. Smartphone non-consumers dropped to 147 million. Among platforms, here are the shares and total users:

In terms of user gain/loss here is the tally:

Android and iOS have continued to increase consumption fairly consistently while RIM has moderated user losses. Microsoft has also shown the fourth consecutive month of usage increase having increased users by 440k since May. The new Windows Phones seem to have at least stopped erosion of user base though that base is still nearly a third of RIM’s.

Overall, smartphone non-consumption continues to be the largest competitor though one which is steadily losing.

Even though China may overtake it in the new few months, the US is the largest smartphone market and it’s a good leading indicator of the way the industry in evolving. It’s also being measured by multiple observers[1] and we thus have a better chance at understanding the rate at which change is happening.

—

Note:

1. Nielsen reports that 43% of the phones in use in the US now are smartphones in the US with Ages 25 to 34 having 62% penetration.

 

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Apple's transition from MobileMe to iCloud brings the promise of centralized, cloud-based storage for all your important data. Unfortunately, the transition hasn't been smooth for all users. Aside from Apple's servers being overloaded with MobileMe account transitions, some are having issues reconciling Apple's assumption that every user has a unique Apple ID and that every Apple ID is used for just one person.

People who never used MobileMe and only ever used one Apple ID for iTunes purchases appear to be experiencing a completely smooth transition to iCloud. We haven't heard of any serious complaints from users in this scenario. It's the users with more than one Apple ID, users who have shared an Apple ID with family members, and users transitioning from MobileMe, however, who have reported a variety of problems making the jump to the cloud. 

Though rumors popped up in the weeks running up to the iCloud launch that Apple was working on a way to merge multiple Apple IDs, such a process still is not publicly available. People who have used more than one Apple ID in the past may have a variety of iTunes song, video, app, and other purchases associated with more than one of them. While a Mac or PC can be authorized with more than one Apple ID at a time, only one can be associated with an iOS device in any 90 day period. Being able to sync past purchases from more than one account just isn't possible.

Other users are having the opposite problem. Some families have used a single Apple ID for iTunes purchases for mom, dad, brother, and sister (or various other combinations). While such a strategy may have made sense for a particular family's needs—especially if younger children were using iPod touches with parental approval—if that ID is used for iCloud, it could create headaches. Unless all devices are going to be synced to the same data store—with everyone sharing contacts, calendars, and other information—other users who were previously dependent on that account may have to re-purchase apps or music.

Thankfully, there's a partial solution to this. Apple allows for a separate Apple ID for the iTunes Store and iCloud; if everyone in a family creates and uses a unique Apple ID for iCloud, they could still share an Apple ID for iTunes. Even if the shared account has been used to set up iCloud for one family member, the rest could still use that Apple ID for iTunes only. Users will just have to be very careful that everything is set up properly; since everyone in the family will know the password, if another member inadvertently uses that Apple ID for iCloud during setup it could cause data syncing problems.

But wait, there's more

Still, users transitioning from MobileMe may experience one or more of several other reported issues. Apple's servers were inundated with MobileMe to iCloud transfer requests after iCloud became available last Wednesday. Apple had to throttle account transitions in order to keep up, and some users reported as late as Saturday that they had not yet been able to move an account over.

Even those who were able to successfully move a MobileMe account to iCloud found that e-mail servers would no longer recognize valid passwords. Apple did acknowledge the password issue on Friday, and as of late Sunday, Apple updated its iCloud system status to say that mail accounts and account transfers are now working as expected. If you still have a problem with mail servers recognizing your password, however, deleting the account from Mail and re-adding it is a known workaround.

People who originally used .Mac or were early adopters of MobileMe are likely to have both @mac.com and @me.com Apple IDs. As far as Apple is concerned, these Apple IDs are interchangeable, but we've heard a handful of reports of display anomalies for some users. Logging in using me.com might show the Apple ID as mac.com on one or more devices, or vice versa. After consulting with MobileMe support staff, we are confident that the issue does not affect functionality, whatever the bug may be that causes the Apple ID to display differently on different devices.

Some users, however, may experience an error saying that a me.com or mac.com e-mail address cannot be verified and used with iMessage or FaceTime. The known cause for this problem is that a user's MobileMe account may have been added as an alternate e-mail address for a separate Apple ID account. (I personally experienced this problem; I had previously added a me.com account to a separate Apple ID to use FaceTime.) The fix for this problem is to remove the MobileMe e-mail address from the other Apple ID by going to appleid.apple.com. Once removed, you may have to wait up to 24 hours before activating iMessage or FaceTime using the account.

Given the numerous problems Apple saw while launching MobileMe, it's unfortunate that iCloud has gone through these transition hiccups. Despite the annoyance, some careful planning and a little patience can solve the problems for many users. It's definitely best to keep in mind that iCloud works best when each user has a unique Apple ID. There is still no fix for those who would like to merge multiple Apple IDs into one, but after talking with support staff, it looks like Apple might still be working on a solution.

Photograph by Cracker and Cheese

comScore Reports May 2011 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

Smartphones Reach Key Milestone; Now Owned by 1 in 3 Americans

RESTON, VA, July 5, 2011 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending May 2011. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 24.8 percent market share. Google Android led among smartphone platforms with 38.1 percent market share.

OEM Market Share

For the three month average period ending in May, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 24.8 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 21.1 percent share and Motorola with 15.1 percent share. Apple strengthened its position at #4 with 8.7 percent share of mobile subscribers (up 1.2 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 8.1 percent share.

Top Mobile OEMs 3 Month Avg. Ending May 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2011 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
	Feb-11	May-11	Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Samsung	24.8%	24.8%	0.0
LG	20.9%	21.1%	0.2
Motorola	16.1%	15.1%	-1.0
Apple	7.5%	8.7%	1.2
RIM	8.6%	8.1%	-0.5

Smartphone Platform Market Share

76.8 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in May 2011, up 11 percent from the preceding three month period. Google Android ranked as the top operating system with 38.1 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers, up 5.1 percentage points. Apple strengthened its #2 position with 26.6 percent of the smartphone market, up 1.4 percentage points. RIM ranked third with 24.7 percent share, followed by Microsoft (5.8 percent) and Palm (2.4 percent).

Top Smartphone Platforms 3 Month Avg. Ending May 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2011 Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
	Feb-11	May-11	Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Google	33.0%	38.1%	5.1
Apple	25.2%	26.6%	1.4
RIM	28.9%	24.7%	-4.2
Microsoft	7.7%	5.8%	-1.9
Palm	2.8%	2.4%	-0.4

Mobile Content Usage

In May, 69.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device. Browsers were used by 39.8 percent of subscribers (up 1.5 percentage points), while downloaded applications were used by 38.6 percent (up 2.0 percentage points). Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 1.8 percentage points to 28.6 percent of mobile subscribers. Game-playing was done by 26.9 percent of the mobile audience (up 2.3 percentage points), while 18.6 percent listened to music on their phones.

Mobile Content Usage 3 Month Avg. Ending May 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2011 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
	Feb-11	May-11	Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Sent text message to another phone	68.8%	69.5%	0.7
Used browser	38.3%	39.8%	1.5
Used downloaded apps	36.6%	38.6%	2.0
Accessed social networking site or blog	26.8%	28.6%	1.8
Played Games	24.6%	26.9%	2.3
Listened to music on mobile phone	17.5%	18.6%	1.1