Nielsen: two-thirds of new mobile buyers get smartphones
updated 07:59 pm EDT, Thu July 12, 2012
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Smartphones are now pretty clearly driving growth in the mobile phone market, according to new figures out from research group Nielsen. A post on the firm's blog claims that smartphones accounted for two out of three mobile purchases in the United States. Nielsen also found that the percentage of mobile subscribers owning smartphones has ticked up from previous estimates.
Nielsen found that 54.9 percent of US mobile subscribers owned smartphones in June of 2012. That's up from 50 percent in March of this year. Android is still the most popular operating system, with 51.8 percent of all smartphone owners and 54.6 percent of those buying a phone in the last three months running an Android handset.
Among Android phone manufacturers, Samsung holds the top spot with a 17 percent market share. HTC and Motorola trail Samsung with 14 and 11 percent shares, respectively.
Apple, though, remains the most popular single manufacturer. Its iOS platform accounts for 34.3 percent of all smartphone owners and 36.3 percent of those buying phones in the last three months.
Research in Motion's BlackBerry OS was third in market share, with nine percent, followed by Windows Mobile at three percent, Windows Phone 7 at 1.3 percent, and Symbian and Palm/WebOS, both under one percent.
