Most U.S. Consumers Chose Android (This Summer)

According to research by the Nielsen Company, more recent acquirers of mobile devices have been opting for Android phones over other brands. The numbers from a Nielsen survey show that as of August 2011, about 56% of the consumers that bought a new smartphone in the three preceeding months chose Android.

Why is that significant? There are two reasons.

One is that currently, Niesen has Android market penetration pegged at 43%, which means that more buyers than average (56%) have been buying Android phones recently. The other reason is that according to Nielsen, the trends of these recent acquirers typically foreshadow the direction of the market.

Thus, despite already dominating the smartphone market (even the venerable iOS holds just 28% market share), Android looks like it will continue to gobble up market share from most of its competitors.



Other results from the Nielsen survey are interesting, as well. Note specifically that as Android grew in August, BlackBerry and “Other” platforms (such as Windows Phone 7) lost ground while iOS’ market share held steady. Some have pointed out that shoppers longing for an iPhone may be holding off on buying anything at all until the iPhone 5 launches soon-ish, so that may have affected the survey numbers somewhat.
Tags:  Android