BlackBerry maker Research In Motion RIM-T shares drop more than four per cent after report by tech trend firm ComScore says its lead in the U.S. smart phone market is being eroded, mostly by phones powered by Google's Android operating system.
U.S.-based tech trends firm said RIM was still the leading smartphone in the United States with 37.6 per cent share of American smartphone subscribers, but that was down from 41.7 per cent in the previous quarter.
"Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow," ComScore said in a news release.
Apple's iPhone followed RIM in popularity with 24.2 per cent of U.S. smartphone subscribers, down slightly from 24.4 per cent.
Phones using Android were third, with almost 20 per cent of the U.S. smartphone market for the three month period ending Aug. 31, but that was up 6.6 percentage points from the previous quarter, ComScore said.
Samsung, LG and Motorola are among mobile phone makers that use the Android operating system to run their smartphones.
