Apparently the Verizon iPhone wasn’t enough to slow down Android’s rise, as Nielsen is reporting that Google’s mobile OS is capturing a significant portion of new smartphone owners.
Those dynamics are already translating into sales. Half of those surveyed in March 2011 who indicated they had purchased a smartphone in the past six months said they had chosen an Android device. A quarter of recent acquirers said they bought an iPhone and 15 percent said they had picked a Blackberry phone. (Nielsen)
Nielsen notes that the loyalties of smartphone owners are (not surprisingly) weak, which means we could see loyalty shift back towards Apple once iPhone 5 (or iPhone 4S as some are calling it) launches in September.
Windows Phone 7 seems to be holding at around 7% (which is great for a mobile OS that is less than a year old) although surprisingly webOS by HP is barely beating out the semi-dead OS known as Symbian despite boasting a superior user interface to iOS.
With Apple launching prepaid smartphones later on this year, do you think demand for Android devices will decline six months from now? Or will Google simply keep gaining market share at the expense of every rival?
Hat Tip: BusinessWeek
Originally posted on April 26, 2011 @ 3:01 pm