Tuesday, September 13 2011
Android has overtaken Apple to become the second-most popular smartphone platform in Europe, while market-leader Symbian continues to lose share, according to ComScore.
Just over a fifth (22.3%) of European smartphone users had an Android device during the three months to July 31, representing a 16% rise, according to ComScore’s MobiLens study.
While smartphones using the Symbian OS are still the most common in Europe with a 37.8% market share, this figures represented a 16.1% year-on-year drop-off.
Apple’s share increased marginally (1.2%) to 20.3% in the 12 months to July 31, but iOS was edged into third spot in terms of overall market share among smartphone users.
Jeremy Copp, ComScore Europe’s VP for mobile, said, “Network operators, publishers and advertisers looking to effectively reach the European mobile audience must pay close attention to the continued growth of Android in the region, as it will likely have far-reaching implications for the mobile media landscape.”
Another notable trend in the study was that Microsoft’s share of the European smartphone market dropped by 4.8% year on year to 6.7%, despite the high-profile launch of its WP7 in Q4 last year (nma.co.uk 9 June 2011).
A full breakdown of smartphone ownership, according to the ComScore study, is listed below.
The survey also revealed that there were 19.7m Android phones in the European market as of July 31, with HTC and Samsung commanding a 34.6% and 31.7% share of the market respectively.
Sony Ericsson was the third-most popular manufacturer among Android users across Europe.
Meanwhile, Motorola, whose handset unit is subject of a takeover bid from Android creator Google, accounted for 3.6% of Android owners in Europe during the reporting period (nma.co.uk 15 August 2011).
A further breakdown of the Android market is below:
