Smart Phone Market Penetration, October 2011 – April 2013 [CHART]

Chart - Smart Phone Market Penetration

This year will be a “watershed” year for smartphones, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC), which forecasts global smartphone shipments to exceed those of feature phones for the first time. The latest data from comScore, though, shows what is likely a temporary blip in smartphones’ strong growth pattern, at least in the US: during the 3-month period ending in April 2013, comScore says that the share of mobile subscribers with a smartphone was essentially flat from March, at 58%. That figure still represents a substantial increase from 45.7% share during the same period a year ago.

In fact, comScore estimates that the number of people in the US who owned smartphones during the 3-month period ending in April was 138.5 million, which represents an increase from 136.7 million during the 3-month period ending in March. That the smartphone market share remains unchanged even with that increase in owners suggests that either rounding is to blame, or that the overall mobile market grew (or a combination of both). Read the rest at MarketingCharts.