Android has staged a healthy lead over Apple's
iOS as the smartphone wars continue.
Looking at the first quarter of the year, NPD
Group pegged Android's U.S. market share at
61 percent, a jump over the 49 percent
recorded in last year's fourth quarter.
On the flip side, iOS lost ground with a 29
percent market share, down from 41 percent
during 2011's final quarter.
Apple's holiday surge in customers came
courtesy of heavy demand for the iPhone 4S,
which debuted last October. After the new year
kicked in, Android won back the lost ground to
recapture the same market share it held
during the third quarter.
But no tears need be shed for Apple. Though
the company lost share last quarter, the
baseline is now higher as a result of added
iPhone distribution through Sprint, NPD said.
Collectively, Apple and Android now hold 90
percent of all smartphone sales in the U.S.
Smartphones overall failed to gain further
traction as a percentage of all mobile phone
sales. But they still grabbed 66 percent of all
handset sales (post-paid and pre-paid) last
quarter, according to NPD. All ten of the top-
selling models in the first quarter were
smartphones, half of them from Apple, three
of them from Samsung, and one each from
Motorola and HTC.
The smartphone market also has plenty of
room left to expand. Almost half of all
smartphone buyers last quarter moved up
from a feature phone.
Who's buying all those smartphones?
More than two out of three people ages 25 to
34 own a smartphone, according to the latest
research from Nielsen .
Men and women are split almost evenly, with
50.9 percent of female mobile users carrying a
smartphone and 50.1 percent of men.
Asian Americans led the way in smartphone
ownership with 67.3 percent using one as their
main mobile handset. Almost three in five
Hispanic mobile users now have smartphones,
while a majority of African-Americans own
one, Nielsen added.
Android also remains the top dog in the U.S.,
according to Nielsen, though the research firm
gave it a 48 percent market share for last
quarter, followed by Apple's iOS with 32
percent. But Apple continues to reign as the
top smartphone maker.
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