PC ADVISOR
FOR MOBILE

The magazine

Poll

When did you get your first home computer?:

View poll results

Have your say in the
PC Advisor forums!

News

News spotlights:

News by company:

News by product:

Windows XP | Windows Vista | Windows 7 | Apple iPhone | BlackBerry

Back to Business Advisor

November 4, 2009

Touchscreen mobiles see 159% growth

Apple iPhone is way out in the lead

Lexton Snol

Touchscreen mobile phone adoption in the US has shown a significant 159 percent growth rate during the past year to 23.8 million users in August 2009.

According to comScore, the growth in touchscreen device adoption substantially outpaced the already strong 63 percent growth in US adoption of smartphones.

"Touchscreen phones have quickly gained adoption as new devices have flooded the mobile marketplace," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of Mobile.

Apple iPhone touchscreen smartphone

"It's clear that consumers are embracing touchscreen interfaces that allow them to easily navigate the increasingly powerful and complex services afforded by new phones.

Smartphone reviews

Google Android review

"This is a trend that should continue to pick up as additional touchscreen devices, many of them running the Android operating system, arrive in the market before the holiday shopping season."

Top 10 touchscreen devices

The Apple iPhone ranked as the top touchscreen device family with 32.9 percent of touchscreen device users age 13 and older, nearly four times larger than the market share of the next largest device family, the LG Dare (8.7 percent).

Apple iPhone 3GS review

LG Voyager ranked third with 7.8 percent of the market, followed by the Blackberry Storm (7.0 percent) and Palm Treo (6.5 percent).

Apple iPhone 32.9%
LG Dare 8.7%
LG Voyager 7.8%
BlackBerry Storm 7.0%
Palm Treo 6.5%
Samsung Instinct 5.0%
T-Mobile G1 3.6%
HTC Touch 3.3%
Samsung Glyde 2.7%
LG Xenon 2.6%

"The iPhone clearly set the trend in the industry for touchscreen devices, so it's no surprise that it has the largest share of the market," added Donovan.

"But as other players have entered the touchscreen market with compelling devices, competition is clearly heating up."

BlackBerry Storm review

BlackBerry Storm2 review

Touchscreen users younger
Smartphones in general and touchscreen devices specifically tend to be more popular among younger users.

While 38.8 percent of all mobile subscribers (age 13+) are under the age of 35, 51.4 percent of smartphone users are in this age cohort, as are 57.7 percent of touchscreen device users.

In fact, a significant 20.6 percent of touchscreen users are in the narrow age range of 18-24.

Meanwhile, less than 5 percent of smartphone and touchscreen device users are age 65 and older, compared to 13 percent of the total U.S. mobile audience.

<<newer story | back to index | older story>>