One in three Americans own a smartphone but BlackBerrys no longer flying off shelves

(AFP PHOTO/Indranil MUKHERJEE)

A total of 78.8 million Americans, or one out of every three of the 234 million people in the US who use a mobile device, are using a smartphone.

Sales of Android-powered devices, including handsets made by Samsung, LG and Motorola, are growing astronomically in the US according to new data from market researcher comScore.

In the three-month period ending in May 2011, an average of 38.1 percent of all smartphone subscribers had a device running Google's Android operating system (OS), up 5.1 points from an average of 33 percent in the three-month period ending in February 2011.

Apple strengthened its market share too, stealing second place from flailing BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) and growing by 1.4 points to gain a 26.6 percent share of the smartphone market.

RIM saw its market share fall by 4.2 percent to 24.7 percent, as did Microsoft (which dropped from 7.7 percent to 5.8 percent) and Palm (down 0.4 points to 2.4 percent).

As consumers purchased and used more capable mobile devices, their mobile content usage increased too.

In the three months ending in May 2011, 69.5 percent of mobile subscribers sent a text message, 39.8 percent used a browser, 38.6 percent downloaded apps, 28.6 percent accessed a social networking site or blog, 26.9 percent played games and 18.6 percent listened to music on their handset.

In Europe, Nokia appears to be fighting a losing battle against Google’s popular smartphone platform.

A July 5th report by Reuters suggests the company will start cutting the prices of its Flagship N8 smartphone as well as its C7 and E6 handsets by up to 15 percent in a bid to make its smartphone brand more appealing to consumers.  

According to the report, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. will overtake Nokia to "become the world's largest smartphone maker this quarter."

Top 5 Mobile OEMs in the US by mobile subscriber share, 3-month average ending May 2011:

1. Samsung - 24.8%
2. LG - 21.1%
3. Motorola - 15.1%
4. Apple - 8.7%
5. RIM - 8.1%