Apple’s iPhone OS surpasses BlackBerry in popularity contest

Apple’s iPhone operating system is now more popular than Research in Motion’s BlackBerry smartphone operating system, according to the latest usage statistics from comScore.

Both take a back seat to Google’s Android, which has a growing lead as the most popular smartphone OS.

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More than a quarter of all smartphone users had iPhones as of the end of May, according to comScore’s survey of more than 30,000 mobile phone owners. The numbers put Apple’s iOS ahead of RIM, which now accounts for slightly less than a quarter of all smartphones. Google’s market share of the smartphone market grew the fastest of all smartphone manufacturers between February and May and now accounts for nearly two-fifths of all smartphones, according to comScore.

Apple launched the iPhone with Verizon in January, just one month before comScore’s last survey about smartphone users. It’s likely that the jump in Apple’s market share is a result of sales of the iPhone on Verizon’s wireless network.

Nearly 70 percent of all phone owners used text messaging at the end of May, up from 69 percent in February, according to the data from comScore. Two-fifths of smartphone owners used the mobile browser predominantly on the phone and nearly two-fifths of all smartphone owners used apps. The number of smartphone owners using their phones to play music also rose between February and May.

The survey found that Samsung was still the top handset manufacturer, while Apple phones accounted for around 9 percent of all phones sold.

Here’s the breakdown of market share for smartphones from comScore:

	Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
	Feb-11	May-11	Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Google	33.0%	38.1%	5.1
Apple	25.2%	26.6%	1.4
RIM	28.9%	24.7%	-4.2
Microsoft	7.7%	5.8%	-1.9
Palm	2.8%	2.4%	-0.4

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