Reaching 70% Penetration, Smart Phones Cement Place As Rapidly Adopted Technology

Virtually non-existent seven years ago, the smart phone is steadily establishing its place as perhaps the most rapidly adopted consumer electronic device in U.S. history. Some 70% of U.S. mobile subscribers—or 169 million people—owned one by the end of May, up from 66% just since February, according to the latest report from comScore Inc.

Indeed, the smart phone’s market penetration has increased from 62.8% just since the end of 2013, according to comScore, which released its May statistics last week.

This news comes as a wide array of banks, merchants, and technology vendors have come to rely on the mobile devices for delivery of payments, financial services, and promotions. Some companies, such as mobile-acceptance icon Square Inc. and mobile-payments providers Paydiant Inc. and LevelUp Inc. have launched in recent years specifically to take advantage of the smart phone’s capabilities. Others, such as Google Inc., the carrier-controlled MCX consortium, and a slew of financial institutions, have exploited the device to introduce consumer apps for mobile wallets.

Now, with consumer ownership so widespread, it would appear the technology base for mobile payments and offers has fallen into place far sooner than most observers might have predicted.

Among smart-phone makers, Apple Inc. retains its top market-share standing, claiming 41.9% of smart-phone subscribers, followed by Apple nemesis Samsung at 27.8%. Both companies racked up slight share gains from February.

The top operating system belongs to Google Inc. whose Android OS claimed a 52.1% share of subscribers, the same as in February. Apple’s iOS came in second at 41.9%. From there, a yawning gap opens, with Microsoft Corp. and BlackBerry claiming third and fourth places at 3.4% and 2.3%, respectively. The share for Microsoft was unchanged from February, while the ailing BlackBerry lost 0.6 percentage points.

ComScore’s ranking of the 15 top apps by percentage of U.S. mobile-media users who are 18 or older and using Android or iOS showed Facebook in first place at 76.4%, with Google Play a distant second at 51.8%. No payments apps ranked in the top 15. The most popular payments app is PayPal, with a 9.2% share, or 12,762 unique users in May. Also appearing in the top five financial apps are Google Wallet, 1.6% share, and the various Square apps, also collectively at 1.6%.