Nielsen Report Reveals Nearly 50 Percent of US Mobile Phones Are Smartphones

The latest report from Nielsen Mobile Insights has revealed that as feature phone popularity continues to decline, smartphone adoption is still steadily on the rise; for the month of February, smartphones accounted for almost 50% of all US mobile phones.

The Smartphone Penetration report showed that 49.7% of all US mobile phone owners now possess smartphones, a substantial increase from 36% on the year. And, in terms of more recent activity, two-thirds of those who purchased a new phone within the last three months opted for a smartphone over a feature phone.

The OS breakdown of these smartphone users, for which Nielsen also created a report, showed Android to be in the lead, with 48% of smartphone buyers opting for Google’s operating system. iOS was a close second, with 43%, while RIM had a meager showing with only 5% and the remaining 4% was listed simply as “other.” These numbers show a slight boost on the month for Apple; in January, 38% of smartphone users chose iOS while 51.7% went with Android.

Source: Engadget