The iPhone now has more U.S. users than Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, new research shows. Apple’s iconic handset had an average of 8.97 million users in October, compared to Microsoft’s 7.13 million. This is the first time the iPhone has led Windows Mobile cell phones in actual user numbers.
Microsoft has admitted Apple’s iPhone “caught us all napping.” Windows Mobile 7 is not expected until the end of 2010. Morgan Stanley recently said Apple has a two- to three-year lead on its competitors.
The new numbers from Internet metric firm comScore means Apple has the second-largest U.S. marketshare in smartphones. Research in Motion continues to lead the pack with 14.96 million U.S. BlackBerry users. Compared to the iPhone and BlackBerry’s accelerating growth, Windows Mobile has been at a near stand-still.
Palm grew to around 2.84 million U.S. users, while Android and Symbian had about 1.02 million and 1.3 million U.S. users, according to comScore.
Credit for Apple passing Windows Mobile users is the iPhone 3GS, launched just prior to the three-month October period.
[Via Electronista and Engadget]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
