Smartphone penetration across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom - the ‘EU5’ - hit 54.6% during the three-month period from August to the end of October 2012, according to the comScore MobiLens service. It found that Spain had the highest smartphone penetration in Europe (63.2% of mobile phone users) followed by the UK at 62.3%. Spain also had the most dramatic growth, up almost 15 percentage points from last year.
Looking specifically at the UK, Apple was the most popular smartphone manufacturer. Its iPhone range is now the hands of 28% of the country’s smartphone users, while Samsung doubled its market share and moved up to second place with 24%. Google’s Android had the largest UK share of operating systems at 46.6%, followed by Apple at 28% and RIM at 15.2%.
Top smartphone manufacturers: UK share of smartphone users
| Manufacturer |
October 2011 |
October 2012 |
| Apple |
26.5% |
28.0% |
| Samsung |
11.2% |
24.0% |
| RIM (BlackBerry) |
17.7% |
15.2% |
| HTC |
17.7% |
15.0% |
| Nokia |
16.0% |
7.9% |
Top smartphone operating systems: UK share of smartphone users
| Mobile platform |
October 2011 |
October 2012 |
| Google Android |
34.2% |
46.6% |
| Apple iOS |
26.5% |
28.0% |
| RIM |
17.7% |
15.2% |
| Symbian |
17.2% |
6.4% |
| Microsoft Windows Phone |
2.6% |
3.1% |
[Total UK smartphone subscribers aged 13+; three month average Ending Oct 2012 vs. Oct 2011]