DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
The number of people using touchscreen mobile phones in the U.S. almost tripled to 23.8 million during the three months ended in August from a year earlier, according to comScore Inc. (SCOR).
The growth rate is far larger than the 63% increase in U.S. adoption of smartphones during the same period.
"Touchscreen phones have quickly gained adoption as new devices have flooded the mobile marketplace," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile.
He expects the trend will continue as more touchscreen devices, many of them running Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android operating system, go on sale for the holiday shopping season.
Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone was the biggest touchscreen device, with 33% of users age 13 and older. The iPhone's market share was nearly four times larger than the next largest device family, the LG Dare. LG Voyager ranked third, with 7.8% of the market, followed by the Blackberry Storm, 7%, and Palm Inc.'s (PALM) Treo, 6.5%.
Smartphone--and touchscreen devices--are more popular among younger users, with more than half of smartphone users younger than 35 and 58% of touchscreen-device user in that category.
-By Kathy Shwiff, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2357; Kathy.Shwiff@dowjones.com