Google Android growth outpacing smartphone industry

BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Smartphones are continuing to grow within the U.S. market with Google Android showing particular market growth at present, according to recent data published by ComScore.

Figures released on Monday shows that Android-based phones are still a fractional 9 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, but has seen the fastest growth of any smartphone platform over the last three months. Google and its partners gained 5.2 percentage points of market share from November 2009 to February 2010.

Success has been cited on the Motorola Droid launch, as well as the release of Google's own branded Nexus One. Most Americans are still using regular mobile phones, according to ComScore. Americans over the age of 13 own 254 million mobile phones, as compared to 45.4 million smartphones. However, the momentum is clearly on the smartphone side, with sales up 21 percent from November to February.

Microsoft was the big loser during the period, down 4 percentage points to 15.1 percent of the market. Palm, in fifth place, also lost market share during the period as it struggles to gain acceptance for the Palm Pre and Pixi. Research In Motion, the company behind the highly popular BlackBerry Curve smartphone, managed to clock a 1.3 percent increase in its smartphone share from November 2009 to February 2010, acquiring a U.S. market share of 42.1 percent. Apple, which just launched its iPad tablet device, was seen nursing a 0.1 percent drop in its market share over the same period.