Looks like the days of RIM ruling the U.S. smartphone roost are drawing to a close: A new survey finds that the iPhone has pulled even with BlackBerry among current smartphone owners. When it comes to which smartphone OS is the "most desirable," though, it's iPhone vs. Android, not iPhone vs. BlackBerry.Just a couple of months ago, the researchers at Nielsen found that BlackBerry was still the U.S. smartphone king with 31 percent of the market; the iPhone was nipping at RIM's heels with 28 percent and Android was in third place — with a bullet — at 19 percent.
But the iPhone platform managed to snap a 27.9 percent share in Nielsen's latest survey, compared with BlackBerry's 27.4 percent share.
Android continues to gain ground. Its smartphone market share climbed to 22.7 percent — up a couple of points from Nielsen's figures in August, and up an eye-popping 14 percentage points since January. Rounding out the list is Windows Mobile at 14 percent (a figure that doesn't include Windows Phone 7 devices, which had yet to be released at the time of the latest Nielsen survey), the Symbian OS (think Nokia) at 3.4 percent, Linux at 3.3 percent, and Palm with a slender 1.3 percent.Beyond taking a reading on how the major smartphone platforms are faring with current users, Nielsen also asked handheld owners a second question: Which smartphone OS is at the top of your wish list?
The overall winner of "most desired OS" among "likely" smartphone upgraders — by a whisker — was the iPhone, with 30 percent of the vote. Android had 28 percent, BlackBerry 13 percent (bad news for RIM), Windows Mobile 6 percent, "other" 4 percent, and "not sure" a healthy 19 percent.Narrow the range of answers to just smartphone owners, though, and the results change, with the iPhone getting bumped up to 38 percent, while Android held steady at 28 percent. The BlackBerry OS got a 2-point boost among current smartphone users, to 15 percent.
On the other hand, it turns out most "feature phone" (i.e., non-smartphone) owners would prefer trading up to an Android phone, with 28 percent of feature-phone users saying they'd like to go the Android way, versus 25 percent for the iPhone and 25 percent for "not sure."Filter the results by age, and we find that the younger you get, the more you want an iPhone or an Android handset, with 35.9 percent and 32 percent of those ages 18 to 25 wanting an iPhone or an Android device, respectively. Those figures steadily shrink with age, and by the time we get to those 55 or older, only 26.4 percent "most desire" an iPhone, or 20.3 percent for Android.
The most popular smartphone OS choice for those 55 and up is "not sure" at 27.8 percent, versus just 12.2 percent for those between 18 and 24.There's also a gender divide when it comes to the "most desired" smartphone OS: Women prefer the iPhone (30.9 percent) to Android (22.8 percent), whereas more men are pining for an Android device (32.6 percent) than an iPhone (28.6 percent).
So, which smartphone do you own right now — and which smartphone OS do you most wish you were using?
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