Despite poor economic conditions in the country, Spain has experienced the strongest growth in smartphone ownership from October 2011 to 2012 – 14.8 per cent – and remains the country with the highest penetration in the EU5 – now at 63.2 per cent. The UK is the second largest smartphone market, with 62.3 per cent  penetration, 30.9m users, and has seen growth of 14.2 per cent over the period.

comScores MobiLens reports the key mobile trends across the five leading EU markets – France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK – during the three months to October 2012. Total smartphone penetration is 54.6 per cent, an audience of 131.5m, and a 13 per cent increase on the same period last year.

France is the third largest market, with 51.4 per cent penetration. Italy has seen 9.1 per cent growth in smartphone ownership in the last year, and now has 51.2 per cent penetration. Germany remains the most cautious smartphone nation, while ownership has grown 14.2 per cent, penetration remains below half, at 48.4 per cent.

Samsung doubles UK audience

While Apple remains the top smartphone manufacturer in the UK with 8.6m users and 28 per cent of the market – growth of 1.5 per cent – Samsung has seen a 12.8 per cent increase and doubled its market share from 11.2 per cent  to 24 per cent. Googles Android OS accounts for 46.6 per cent of the UK smartphone audience – 12.4 per cent growth year-on-year.

RIM still manages third place, with 15.2 per cent share – a drop of 2.5 per cent – closely followed by HTC. Nokias handsets have lost 8.1 per cent market share.