Google Loses To Apple And RIM In Mobile OS Market Share

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published

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Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is not the number 1 mobile operating system used in smartphones in the US. It is not number 2. Google is now in third place with only 19.6% of the mobile platform market in August, according to comScore.

In the first spot is Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) which makes the Blackberry. RIM has a market share of 36.7%. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is in second place with a 24.2% share.

Although RIM has the lead, it is eroding sharply down from 41.7% in May. Android’s share in May was 13%, so its growth is nothing short of remarkable.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), despite impressions to the contrary, is still a force is the US  market where its share is 10.9%, but that share is falling.

The study confirms the growth of Android but contradicts other research that shows the operating system has moved ahead of Apple and RIM. Nielsen research showed that “Nearly one in three who bought a smartphone in the past six months snapped up an Android handset.”

It is still a puzzle to many analysts how Google will make money on Android, which is an open source product. Some speculate that Android will help improve Google’s share of the mobile search or mobile advertising markers. However, it is likely to command those positions as people move from PC-based search. Brand loyalty is likely to prevail because of the number of consumers who favor the Google search capabilities, no matter what the platform.

Among manufactures, Samsung-made had 23.6% of the use mobile subscriber base, followed by LG at 21.2%, and Motorola at 18.8%. Smartphones do not have high overall share because simpler handsets still dominate overall sales.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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