Although incremental, Symbian actually gained share among smartphone platforms in the U.S., according to Comscore’s latest numbers.
After holding steady with 0.2 percent market share for most of the year, Symbian fell to 0.1 percent in Comscore’s study for the three-month period ending in July. But now it’s back up to 0.2 percent.
Adam Lella, a marketing insights analyst at Comscore, said the numbers are based on survey data so it’s possible they can fluctuate slightly on a monthly basis.
But the uptick is at least noteworthy because, even though Accenture is supporting Symbian through 2016, the last Symbian Nokia smartphone shipped in 2013. Also, the 0.1 percentage point gain for Symbian is equal to or close to the fluctuations Android, Windows and BlackBerry experienced over the same period of time.
Aside the possible Symbian anomaly, Comscore’s latest numbers show Windows Phone up 0.2 percent to 3.6 percent market share and BlackBerry continuing its slide, now down to 2.3 percent of the U.S. smartphone OS market. But the apparent success the BlackBerry Passport, released near the end of September, could put BlackBerry back in the positive when October numbers come out.
At the top of the leaderboard, Android pulled away from second-place iOS, adding 0.2 percent to bring its market share total to 52.1 percent. Meanwhile Apple fell 0.4 percent to 41.7 percent. Of course, Apple reported a record iPhone launch near the end of September so those numbers could swing soon.
As for smartphone OEM market in the U.S., Apple and Samsung maintained their places at the top, with 41.7 percent and 29 percent share respectively. LG jumped 0.5 percent to 6.9 percent share and Motorola fell 0.5 percent to 5.4 percent share. HTC held onto 4.4 percent share, down from 4.8 percent at the end of June.