Tuesday, 27 September 2011

More than half of all U.S. mobile subscribers who purchased a smartphone within the past three months selected a device running Google' Android operating system according to new data issued by Nielsen.

Click here to see a larger version of this chart from Nielsen.

Android-powered devices accounted for 56 percent of all U.S. smartphone sales during the previous three months and now make up 43 percent of total nationwide smartphone market share, Nielsen states. Apple's  iOS remains in second place with 28 percent U.S. market share--iOS devices also accounted for 28 percent of all smartphones purchased by American consumers during the last three months. Nielsen adds that iOS could experience a spike in the months ahead with its iPhone 5 expected to launch sometime during the next several weeks--iOS sales increase with each new device iteration or carrier partnership.

Fifty-six percent of all U.S. subscribers who purchased a new phone during the last three months selected a smartphone over a feature phone, Nielsen reports. Research In Motion's BlackBerry still makes up 18 percent of total U.S. smartphone market share, but only 9 percent of consumers purchased a BlackBerry device during the last three months. Rival operating systems make up 11 percent of the combined U.S. market and 6 percent of recent sales.

"The holiday season and the launch of new devices like the next iPhone could further accelerate smartphone adoption, though this is always tempered by the fact that many consumers are unwilling or unable to break their service contracts before they expire," writes Nielsen director of telecom research and insights Don Kellogg on the firm's blog. "In any event, the growing popularity of app-and-media friendly smartphones spells tremendous opportunity for those advertisers, publishers and developers eager to leverage mobile media."