Smartphone possession just Shy Of 80 p.c In comScore’s New Numbers

Media measurement firm comScore simply launched its January mobile and app figures for the united states market. Extrapolating from its panel, comScore estimates complete smartphone possession in the us at seventy nine.1 percent of all cellular subscribers. Curiously, that is under the seventy nine.3 percent reported for December 2015.

Month over month, there’s now almost no motion in running machine market share numbers on comScore’s lists. It’s a kind of replicate of the quest market, the place figures stay generally unchanged sequentially.

There’s a nine-level gap isolating Android and iOS. Microsoft’s home windows cellphone OS is flat (but declining longer-time period), and there are still some BlackBerry devices around. The OS horse race is much less interesting than it used to be.

fb and Google proceed, as they have got for the prior couple of years, to dominate the listing of prime apps — this is reach, no longer engagement or time spent. It’s rather fascinating that YouTube and Google Play outrank the Google Search app. That’s one thing of a metaphor for differences in user behavior between the pc and cellular.

I maintain waiting for smartphone figures to cross the eighty-percent mark; if truth be told, they may have already. Smartphone penetration calculations depend on the dimensions of the divisor or estimated base of mobile subscribers.

there’s a vary of estimates in the market concerning the put in base of cell customers. CTIA, the wi-fi business change workforce, says cell phone penetration in the us is 104 %. that suggests effectively there could be extra cell phones (including “characteristic telephones”) than people in the us — or smartly over 300 million handsets.

There are 198.5 million smartphone owners in the us these days, in keeping with comScore. If 300 million is the divisor, smartphone penetration would be a meager 66 %. If the divisor is 250 million, the penetration determine would be 76 %. If one uses the earlier divisor comScore once used to make this calculation, “234 million americans age thirteen and older,” penetration can be 84 percent. 

In mid-February, consumer Intelligence analysis partners (CIRP) estimated there were 110 million iPhones in the usa. If iPhones truly are 44 % of the market in the us, and the CIRP estimates are correct, that may roughly imply a base of about 250 million cellular subscribers.

despite which of the above figures is proper, the eighty-p.c threshold will be crossed by the time the March numbers are out. Later this year, we will have to see eighty five % smartphone penetration. Penetration rates exceeding 80 and even 90 percent exist already for populations beneath 40.

in line with comScore, there are roughly 234 million pc web users in the united states. i think by means of mid-2017 there shall be extra smartphone owners — the ultimate “cellular takeover” milestone.

in regards to the writer

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a private weblog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and actual-world consumer conduct. he is also VP of technique and Insights for the local Search affiliation. practice him on Twitter or find him at Google+.

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