WebProNews

Touchscreen mobile phone adoption in the U.S. showed a significant 159 percent growth rate during the past year to 23.8 million users, according to a new report from comScore.

The growth in touchscreen device adoption outpaced the already strong 63 percent growth in U.S. adoption of smartphones.

"Touchscreen phones have quickly gained adoption as new devices have flooded the mobile marketplace," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of Mobile. "It's clear that consumers are embracing touchscreen interfaces that allow them to easily navigate the increasingly powerful and complex services afforded by new phones.

"This is a trend that should continue to pick up as additional touchscreen devices, many of them running the Android operating system, arrive in the market before the holiday shopping season."

The Apple iPhone ranked as the top touchscreen device with 32.9 percent of touchscreen users age 13 and older, nearly four times larger than the market share of the next largest device, the LG Dare (8.7%). LG Voyager ranked third with 7.8 percent of the market, followed by the Blackberry Storm (7%) and Palm Treo (6.5%).

"The iPhone clearly set the trend in the industry for touchscreen devices, so it's no surprise that it has the largest share of the market," said Donovan.

"But as other players have entered the touchscreen market with compelling devices, competition is clearly heating up."

Unsurprisingly, smartphones in general and touchscreen devices specifically tend to be more popular among younger users. While 38.8 percent of all mobile subscribers are under the age of 35, 51.4 percent of smartphone users are in the same age group, as are 57.7 percent of touchscreen device users.

Related Articles:

> Bing Gets More Mobile Features In The US

> Apple Fans Respond To The "Droid Does"Advertising Campaign

> UPS Launches App For iPhone Users