The rising adoption of smartphones in the U.S. has created a very competitive landscape for the top 3 mobile operating systems, Google, Apple and RIM.
Google Android has rapidly ascended in this market, growing from just 605,000 subscribers (2.4 percent market share) in April 2009 to more than 27 million subscribers (36.4 percent market share) in April 2011. Google held the #3 position since June 2010 before it passed Apple for the #2 position in November 2010. Two short months later, it surpassed RIM to secure the #1 ranking in January 2011.
Apple has also succeeded in capturing share in this market over the past 2 years, growing from 5.1 million subscribers (20.1 percent market share) in April 2009 to more than 19 million subscribers (26.0 percent market share) in April 2011. Apple held the #2 position from August 2009 to October 2010, when it fell to #3 at the expense of Google. In April 2011, Apple regained the #2 position between RIM (#3) and Google (#1).
