The mercurial U.S. smartphone market has a new favorite and it’s not the iPhone. It’s Android, which is now the leading smartphone OS in the States in market share, according to a survey released this morning by Nielsen. As of March 2011, 37 percent of smartphone users own an Android device, said Nielsen–significantly more than the 27 percent who own an iPhone and the 22 percent who own a BlackBerry.
That’s quite a shift from last October, when 27.9 percent owned an iPhone, 27.4 percent a BlackBerry and 22.7 percent an Android device. But evidently there’s a new trend in smartphone buying intent and it favors Android.
Nielsen’s latest figures show 31.1 percent of consumers planning to purchase a new smartphone leaning towards an Android device, up from 25.5 percent last fall. Meanwhile, 30 percent intend to buy an iPhone–down from 32.7 percent last fall–and 10.5 percent want a BlackBerry, down from 12.6 percent. As the research house notes, that shift in preference is already translating into sales. Half of those surveyed in March 2011 who purchased a smartphone in the previous six months said they bought an Android device.
