Three of every four U.S. mobile subscribes aged 13 and older owned a smartphone during the three-month period ending in December 2014, reveals comScore in its latest market update.
While penetration remains the highest among youth and higher-income consumers, smartphone adoption has been growing quick among lower-income and older Americans.
As of December 2014, almost nine in 10 (88.9% of) mobile subscribers aged 25-34 owned a smartphone, with those aged 18-24 (88.6%) right on their heels. These two groups have maintained the highest adoption rates going at least as far back as January 2013, when penetration stood at 73.5% and 72.2%, respectively.
In both relative and absolute terms, though, it’s been the youngest and oldest groups that have driven the uptick in smartphone penetration. Remembering that these percentage figures are among mobile subscribers, consider that:
• As of December 2014, 83.7% of teens (13-17) owned a smartphone, up from 8.9% in January 2013;
- The percentage of 55-64-year-old mobile subscribers with a smartphone grew from 40.4% to 61.5% during that timeframe, passing the majority threshold in January of last year; and
- Almost half (46.6% of) mobile subscribers aged 65 and older owned a smartphone in December 2014, almost double the share (24.5%) from January 2013.
Looking at income-related trends, the comScore data demonstrates that smartphone penetration correlates with household income, with adoption trending higher alongside each income bracket.
Indeed, more than 8 in 10 mobile subscribers who hail from households with pre-tax income of at least $75,000 per year now own smartphones, including 84.3% of those with household income of at least $100,000 per year.
Over the past couple of years, though, smartphone penetration has crossed the majority threshold for lower- income groups.
Indeed, the latest figures indicate that 61.3% of mobile subscribers from low-income households (<$25k/ year) now own a smartphone, representing an almost 50% increase from the January 2013 figure (42.9%).
Among those in the $25-50k/year bracket, 7 in 10 now own a smartphone, up from 48.1% at the beginning of
2013.
Other findings:
• During the 3-month average ending in December 2014, Apple remained the top smartphone OEM with 41.6% share of smartphone subscribers aged 13 and older, per comScore’s figures. That market share is up by almost 4 points from 37.8% in January 2013. Samsung, the second-ranked OEM, has experienced a bigger uptick in market share during that period, from 21.4% to 29.7%;
• In terms of smartphone platforms, Android’s majority 53.1% share in December 2014 is up only slightly from 52.3% share in January 2013. The big loser over that time span has been BlackBerry, down from 5.8% to 1.8% market share; and
• Facebook ranked as the top smartphone application again in December 2014, reaching 70.2% of the “app audience” (smartphone mobile media users aged 18 and older on iOS and Android platforms).