US : Synergy Research Group (SRG) announces the availability of the Synergy Q2 2008 Mobile Handset Market Share report. Even in the face of a challenging economic environment, the US Smartphone market posted strong double-digit growth. This is good news for operators having a greater opportunity to increase revenues per subscriber in a market that is a leader in consumer voice usage.

Apple's iPhone continues to break records, shipping over a million units in 3 consecutive quarters. Even with Q2 shipments dropping in anticipation of the new 3G iPhone, Apple retained the second place spot for the first half of the year with Motorola a close third.

Motorola, who is currently the number one US Mobile Handset vendor with 25 percent share, is showing signs of difficulty in the lucrative and fast growing US Smartphone business. In Q2 2008, Motorola was the only vendor in our study posting double-digit drops for both sequential and annual growth.

In the first half of 2008, the US Smartphone market represented 12.2 percent of total Mobile handsets shipped. As a point of comparison, Smartphones represented fewer than 10 percent in the first half of 2007.

Q2 2008 US Smartphone Vendor Shipment Growth Q-Q Y-Y Apple -64.2% 125.6% RIM 8.1% 92.1% Sony Ericsson 9.4% 32.9% Samsung -1.1% 31.3% LG 10.5% 29.4% Motorola -28.6% -18.2% Nokia 43.6% -24.5% Source: Synergy Research Group

"Despite the rock star status of the Apple iPhone, the Blackberry (RIM) dominates the US market with a market share of 46 percent (first half of 2008) versus Apple's 15 percent," says Aaron Vance, Senior Analyst, Synergy Research Group. "But with iPhone's continued strong success, which only took Apple a year to achieve a number 2 ranking, it may be sooner than later that Apple is challenging the Blackberry, a notion that would have seemed impossible to many a year or two ago."