Nielsen: Android overtakes iOS in desirability, sales in the US

Nielsen asked US consumers about smartphone OS' during the first quarter of this year and found out that Android has been the most popular with new buyers lately and the most desirable OS too. Interestingly, the number of people who answered “Not sure” also went up.

Last year, between July and September, a third of consumers answered iOS, when asked what OS they want next. But when asked the same question between January and March this year, more people answered Android instead of iOS. Actually, Android is the only OS whose desirability didn’t decline.

Six months have passed since September 2010 and now half of the people who buy new smartphones go for Android and only a quarter for iOS. The remaining quarter is dominated by new BlackBerries (15%, remember this is just for the US) with the occasional Windows Mobile/Phone 7 (7%) and WebOS and Symbian barely registering.

Which brings us to the final standings – the total smartphone market share in the US as registered by Nielsen in March 2011. Android is in the lead with 37%, with iOS (27%) and BlackBerry OS (22%) coming in second and third. That’s not bad at all, considering Android phones are manufactured by a multitude of companies while the other two are exclusively used in their respective companies.

It's a shame that Nielsen put Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7 under the same category, we were curious to see how much of that 10% market share is due to Microsoft’s new OS.

Source