Majority Rules (And By Majority, We Mean Android)
Consumers vote with their wallets and over the last 6 months, the majority of smartphone voters are checking Android when they drop their credit card into the ballot box. Nielsen reports that in the United States, Android has reached 43% marketshare for smartphones but when polling those who purchased within the last 6 months, 56% are choosing Android.
It doesn’t look like Android’s growth will slow down anytime soon. That being said, it’s would be interesting to breakdown these statistics further as I’m sure some interesting patterns exist and new ones will emerge:
- What percentage of first-time smartphone buyers are choosing Android?
- What percentage of BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Phone, or WebOS users are defecting to Android and how do those numbers compare?
- What percentage of current Android users are defecting to iPhone, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone?
- Are there any people on the planet going from a smartphone back to a feature phone (which should probably be renamed featureless phone)?
I’d like to see these questions answered, but in today’s relatively volatile tech market anything can happen. A few years ago, Android didn’t even exist. Even more recently, WebOS was hands-down the hottest hyped mobile platform. And even MORE recently, Nokia was innovating like crazy.
Okay… scratch that last one.
Android will almost certainly continue its surge to the top. While the majority of smartphone buyers are choosing android phones over the competition, it’s interesting to note that Android is still #3 behind BlackBerry and Apple in total handsets owned according to Nielsen.
With Microsoft on the verge of launching Mango, Apple on the verge of launching a new iPhone, HP on the verge of selling WebOS, and Blackberry on the verge of nothing, where will these stats stand in a year? As always, there’s never a lack of excitement in the mobile tech world and we’re eager to see another strong year for Android moving into 2012.
[Via Nielsen]