Android has take the lead over other smartphone platforms in the US, Nielsen reported today. Between November and January, Android broke a three-way deadlock and claimed 29 percent of the US smartphone market, just ahead of the iPhone and BlackBerry tied at 27 percent. All of Microsoft’s platforms combined were a distant third at 10 percent.
The company also gave a rare glimpse into the individual hardware manufacturers for platforms that aren’t completely controlled by the OS designer. HTC was the most successful of these by being successful in more than one platform: it was the top Android manufacturer at 12 percent of the total smartphone arena, and dominated both Windows Phone and Windows Mobile with seven percent of the overall smartphone field. A tenth of all smartphones were Motorola Android devices, but Motorola’s exit from Microsoft and the resulting punitive Microsoft lawsuit were apparent as just one percent of US smartphones were Motorola’s old Windows Mobile hardware.
Samsung was the last significant player in either Android or Windows, having five percent of Google’s OS and just two percent of Microsoft platforms. WebOS was four percent and Nokia’s Symbian had a total of two percent.
