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Smartphones Now 25% of U.S. Mobile Market, Android Taking Off

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Nielsen released some very interesting numbers today, summarizing Americans’ smartphone habits and desires. One out of four phones are now smartphones, an increase of 56% over the past year. For the first time, more Android devices were sold in a quarter than iPhones. With a 27% share of new subscribers, Google’s free mobile operating system is clearly on a tear, but the iPhone still remains the most desired smartphone amongst those planning to buy a new one.

While Android and iPhone subscribers are way up over the past year, sales of WinMo and Blackberry smartphones are falling off a cliff. Just a year ago 45% of new smartphone activations were Blackberry devices and 20% were WinMo. Last quarter, those numbers were just 33% (27% drop) and  11% (45% drop) lower, respectively.

The only thing worse for Research in Motion than its sliding market share is its own customers’ views. According to the Nielsen’s survey, only 42% of BlackBerry users want another BlackBerry as their next smarphone, with just over a quarter eyeing an iPhone next and 21% want an Android device. This is far behind iPhone and Android users’ loyalty to their respective mobile operating systems. Despite all of the complaints of shoddy AT&T coverage, antenna problems and other issues, U.S. 89% of iPhone users plan to upgrade to another iPhone.

The smartphone market is still in its infancy, with 75% of the mobile phone market up for grabs. It’ll be very interesting to see how (or if) Microsoft’s release of Windows Phone 7 mixes these numbers up next quarter.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Mickey Segal

    08/02/2010 at 1:17 pm

    A new factor in the choices is the privacy issue. As detailed at https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/business/global/02berry.html, the only smartphone that protects your email from prying governments is the BlackBerry. Many Americans would be agreeable to the US government checking emails for valid security purposes, but would feel differently about other countries.

  2. The Music Void

    08/05/2010 at 5:02 am

    News broke on Monday that Android smartphones are staring to kick the sh*t out of RIM and Apple with new buyers.
    According to a Nielsen report, in 2010 Android-based phones accounted for 27% of the overall smartphone sales in the United States compared to iPhone sales that only accounted for 23%. And that includes the iPhone4’s opening weekend sales of 1.7 million units.

    More on this here via the TMV website: https://www.themusicvoid.com/2010/08/here-come-the-droids/

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