Android tops iPhone among recent buyers, says Nielsen

03.01.2011
Although Apple's share of the U.S. smartphone market remains slightly ahead of Google's, more buyers in the last six months picked a device powered by the latter's Android OS, Nielsen said today.

According to a November survey by the polling company, an Android handset was selected by 41% of U.S. adult smartphone buyers in the last six months. Apple's iPhone accounted for 27% of the purchases, while a BlackBerry device was the choice of 19%.

That means Android smartphones enjoyed a 3-to-2 advantage over the iPhone, and a 2-to-1 lead over Research in Motion's BlackBerry.

Android has surged as consumers' mobile OS choice since June, when only 28% of those polled by Nielsen said they'd bought a Google-powered smartphone in the previous half year.

Nielsen's number jibe with those from a survey of U.S. consumers conducted by ChangeWave Research, which found that of those who planned to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days, was to be the pick for 37%, a gain of seven percentage points since a similar poll in June. Apple's iPhone, meanwhile, plunged from 50% to 38% as the preferred smartphone in the same interval.

ChangeWave has not yet released the purchase plans survey it did in December.