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U.S. Smartphone Penetration Highest Among Hispanics, Asians [Study]

By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 at 12:33 PM
Nielsen-Ethnicity

In a survey cross-referencing smartphone use with ethnicity, Nielsen found that Hispanics and Asians were the most likely to own a smartphone (45% each), followed by African-Americans (33%) and finally Caucasians (27%).  In terms of those recently buying handsets, Asians have been buying the most of the last six months (60%), then Hispanics (56%), African Americans (44%), and Caucasians (42%). Overall, Nielsen concluded that U.S. smartphone penetration in the U.S. sat around 31%, with OS preference pretty evenly spread between iPhone (28%), Android, and BlackBerry (27% each). The OS breakdown by race is pretty evenly spread, with African-Americans preferring BlackBerry (31%), and Asians leaning heavily towards iPhone (36%). As you might expect, Android commanded the most acquisitions in the last six months (43%), while iPhone and BlackBerry stayed steady at 26% and 20% respectively.

It’s interesting to see that white folks are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to smartphone usage, but we can only really guess as to why, though even doing that much can lead to some socially dangerous stereotyping.  If any of you are feeling brave enough to take a stab at justifying the numbers Nielsen has produced, by all means, leave a comment. If you’re looking into any other ethnicity/mobile studies, there was one the other week about the effectiveness of mobile ads based on race.

[via Nielsenwire]

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

  • Jack

    this gotta be wrong! i see many many white people with smartphones.

  • Quietstorm56911

    Why is everything about race? Who cares what races are buying what, it should be good enough that they are buying smartphones.

  • Yoshiki2

    Many hispanics like technology.. or are geeks.. (most of my friends are..)

  • http://twitter.com/clonewar2 parrotcam

    i disagree, hispanics are NOT geeks. they dont like new technology much

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MX4G5ENUR4OCEYDPDCTROXGUWM MHz

    Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race. There are three primary racial divisions within Hispanic communities and countries — Caucasian (White), Mestizo (Mixed Race) and Afro-Latin (Black).

  • Jack

    I would be interested in seeing a study related to smartphones as PC replacement. Think there might be some interesting data related to this demo using their phone in this capacity while Caucasian families do not find the need to pay for smartphone or the carrier costs b/c they have a computer at home that meets those needs 

  • Jh05gv

    This seems to contradict another Nielson survey where it shows the penetration as 62% white, 19% hispanic, 10% black, 6% asian, and 3% other. See following link.

    http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/mobile-snapshot-smartphones-now-28-of-u-s-cellphone-market/

  • Jh05gv

    This seems to contradict another Nielson survey where it shows the penetration as 62% white, 19% hispanic, 10% black, 6% asian, and 3% other. See following link.

    http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/mobile-snapshot-smartphones-now-28-of-u-s-cellphone-market/

  • Jh05gv

    This seems to contradict another Nielson survey where it shows the penetration as 62% white, 19% hispanic, 10% black, 6% asian, and 3% other. See following link.

    http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/mobile-snapshot-smartphones-now-28-of-u-s-cellphone-market/