comScore Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) has released its report on mobile usage for the three months ending July 31st 2012. The report details the growing use of smartphones among consumers, and changes in the way consumers use their mobile devices. The survey, released monthly, takes into account the previous three months in a rolling average of mobile usage statistics.
The report revealed that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is still ahead in the mobile market with its Android platform. That operating system has 52.2% of the smart phone market. That’s up from 50.8% in the last report, hailing from last April.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is also showing a strong rise in usage of its mobile platform, iOS. At the end of April, Apple was showing in second place with 31.4% of the smartphone market, the latest report sees the company with 33.2% of the entire market.
The remaining smart phone platforms, Microsoft Corporation (NASDQAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone, Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ:RIMM), and Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK), all fell in usage during the period, as the more advanced, fully featured operating systems were chosen on upgrade from older models.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which spent a great deal of time and money earlier this year promoting its Windows Mobile 7.5 operating system, along with the Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) Lumia line of smart phones, will be disappointed with the showing. The company fell from a 4% share in the early months of the year to 3.6% as of the end of July.
The fall in usage of the Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) Symbian system is expected, given the lack of support now offered to users of the software, and the lack of app development on the platform.
Similarly, Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ:RIMM) has seen many of its users flock away, as its system becomes increasingly outdated. The company is expected to launch an updated version of its OS, called BB10, early next year.
Other stats to take away from the report include an increase in almost all kind of mobile use during the three months. Text Messaging increased 1.5% to bring the number of users who had sent a text message to 75.6%, mobile gaming was up 0.7% to 33.8%, social networking and blogging was up 1.9% to 37.9%, 51.2% of respondents had browsed the internet, up from 49% in April, 52.6% had used downloaded apps in the period, an increase of 2.4%, and 28.3% of those questioned had listened to music on their phone, that number is up from 25.8% in April.
The research demonstrates a couple of things about the mobile industry. The first is that usage is increasing and more data rich usage is also rising. Both are moving at a steady rate, a good omen for carriers. Consumers are using their phones, and their data connections, more and more. That means a possible decrease in the length of the upgrade cycle, and a possible increase in ARPU for users.
The second thing to take away from this report is the dominance of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the mobile sphere. The other firms attempting to challenge for dominance, namely Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ:RIMM), are taking to long to release competitors into the market.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are not fighting each other in the market, right now they are merely pushing the smaller players right out of contention. The effect of such a move on competition remains to be seen, but something can be learned from the abortive launch of the Lumia 900 earlier this year.
Whatever the case, the mobile landscape does not seem to be changing at any appreciable pace. Perhaps that will change with the introduction of two new operating systems early next year.
This report was compiled from a survey of 30,000 mobile phone users across the United States. The findings are part of the comScore Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) MobiLens service, which researches the usage of mobile technology and relation to online commerce. The service is used by businesses, device manufacturers, and content suppliers to assess the usage of devices and the demand for different kinds of content.
comScore Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) specializes in the aggregations of information relating to the digital sphere and online commerce. The company has a client list that includes some of the biggest names in the mobile world and content creation, including the Financial Times, Baidu.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL), BBC, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO).
