Android gains ground at RIM’s expense

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While Research in Motion’s BlackBerry OS is still the most-used smartphone platform in the United States, it’s starting to hear footsteps from Google’s Android.

According to the latest data from analytics firm comScore, RIM smartphones accounted for 33.5% of all US smartphone subscribers in November. This figure, while still higher than RIM’s competitors, represents a decline of 4.1% from last August, when RIM devices accounted for 37.6% of US smartphones.

In contrast, Google’s popular Android platform made the biggest gains between August and November, as it saw its smartphone market share jump from 19.6% in August to 26% in November, a gain of 6.4%. It marked the first time that Android had overtaken Apple’s iPhone OS in the US smartphone market, as Apple held 25% of the US smartphone market in November, a slight increase from the 24.2% share it held in August.

Research firm Gartner has projected that by the end of the year sales of Android devices will exceed those based on the BlackBerry OS and the iPhone OS, meaning that Android will trail only Symbian as the world’s most-used mobile operating system.

Since its debut in 2007, Android has appeared on numerous popular smartphones for several carriers including Verizon’s Motorola Droid and Sprint’s HTC Evo 4G.

Read More: Wireless & Mobile