Smartphone marketshare: Nearly half of US smartphones use Android, while BlackBerry decline continues

Google Android and Apple iOS are continuing to gain marketshare in the US at the expense of Windows Phone and BlackBerry, with just under half of all US smartphones now running Android, according to new US marketshare figures for the quarter ending January 2012.

US smartphone platform marketshare figures released by market research firm ComScore show that the marketshare for Android grew to 48.6% (up 2.3% over the previous quarter), and iOS reached 29.5% (up 1.4%).

The news was less rosy for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile (down 1% to 4.4%) and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry (down 2.0% to 15.2%).

Figures also show significant changes in how consumers use their mobile phones, with a 4.8% increase in the number of users using downloaded apps (an increase to 48.6%) and a 4.5% increase in the number of consumers using their mobile browser (an increase to 48.5%).