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Tech Watch: Apple And Samsung Dominate Smartphone Market

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – Apple and Samsung continue to dominate the U.S. smartphone market while other companies like Research In Motion, Motorola and HTC are struggling to turn a profit.

CNET Editor-at-Large Brian Cooley said as a whole, it is pretty difficult for these companies to make money because unlike Apple and Samsung, which have produced highly popular cellphones, some of the other companies have to make up for duds in the market.

CNET Editor-at-Large Brian Cooley:

According to the latest ComScore survey, a look at the three-month period which ended in February, Google's market share jumped over three percent from November to now 50.1 percent of smartphone subscribers. Apple's market share increased to over 30 percent. All told, Apple and Samsung accounted for 95 percent of the industry's profits in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, RIM's market share fell by more than 3 percent over the same three-month time period. Cooley said that executives with the company said they are going to "refocus on the enterprise," with more branding of BlackBerrys as a business phone. The only problem he said is that more and more, consumers are using their smartphones for both business and personal use.

Overall, Cooley said the interesting race to watch in 2012 will be whether Research In Motion or Nokia becomes that third company, competing with the market's two "big dogs," Apple and Samsung.

You can hear Brian Cooley's Tech Watch report Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:50 P.M. on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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