Smart phones have now reached a quarter of the U.S. mobile-subscribing population, according to Nielsen. While Android has continued its surge, the iPhone remains the most appealing smart phone on the market.
In the second quarter of 2010, smart phone penetration reached 25 percent, up from 23 percent in the previous quarter, and from 21 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Nielsen expects that smart phones will overtake feature phones in the U.S. by the end of 2011.
In the U.S., RIM BlackBerry OS is still the leading operating system in the U.S., with 35 percent of all smart phone subscribers, down from 36 percent in the previous quarter.
Apple iPhone OS follows with 28 percent of the market, the same mark it reached in the first quarter.
Microsoft Windows Mobile remained in third place, though it continues to bleed market share, finishing with 15 percent of the market in the second quarter, down from 18 percent in the first quarter.
Android OS was fourth with 13 percent of the market, up from 9 percent in the first quarter.
Palm OS, Linux and Symbian OS rounded out the list of the top smart phone operating systems in the U.S.
Maybe more interesting is the list of the operating system shares for new smart phone subscribers in the past six months. In this list, RIM BlackBerry leads the way with 33 percent, followed by Android with 27 percent, Apple iPhone with 23 percent and Microsoft Windows Mobile with 11 percent.
A separate report from Canalys shows that worldwide shipments of Android phones rose 886 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2010.
That report estimates that there are 14.7 million smart phone units in the U.S., the largest market in the world. Of this, 32.1 percent are RIM, 21.7 percent are Apple and 14.4 percent are HTC.
Nielsen also took a look at which smart phone OS current users desire next. For current Android owners, 71 percent want another Android phone, followed by 21 percent who want an iPhone and 3 percent who want a BlackBerry.
For current iPhone owners, 89 percent want another iPhone next, followed by 6 percent who want an Android and 2 percent who want a BlackBerry.
For current BlackBerry owners, 42 percent want another BlackBerry, followed by 29 percent who want an iPhone and 21 percent who want an Android.
Sources:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/android-soars-but-iphone-still-most-desired-as-smartphones-grab-25-of-u-s-mobile-market/
http://www.canalys.com/pr/2010/r2010081.html
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