The United States experienced one of the slowest growth rates it has ever had according to the latest research published by Strategy Analytics’ Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, which says that smartphone shipments in Q2 2012 fell 5 percent to reach 23.8 million units in the United States, down 1.4 million from Q2 2011.
The iPhone remains strong in the market, while the Android operating system slipped against Apple to 56 percent, down from 60.6 percent. Meanwhile, RIM shipped barely over half the number of smartphones it did in Q2 of 2011.
While the US market plateaus, however, global smartphone demand appears to still be growing. IDC reported a few days ago that a total of 153.9 million smartphones were shipped worldwide in Q2 2012, compared to 108.3 million at the same time in 2011.
Market saturation could be a factor. Still, while shipments may be slowing, the total subscriber base grew over the same period, reaching 100 million smartphone subscribers by early 2013. If these numbers are all correct, that means we could be seeing fewer people upgrading their existing smartphones.