Well, you know how many of us thought the Android army was unstoppable? Well, Nielsen’s latest numbers suggest that may not be the case in the United States, as it said the Apple iPhone is now driving the growth in smartphone users.
With about 38 percent of the U.S. market, Android is still the leading smartphone platform overall, as Apple’s iPhone only has a 28 percent share. But the report said that the Apple iPhone has shown the most growth in the recent months, which should concern Google because we’ve seen a ton of stellar Android handsets released in the last quarter or so.
The release of the Verizon iPhone may have a lot to do with that, as there were plenty of people on Big Red who wanted an iPhone but didn’t want to switch to AT&T to get one. I do believe that many of these people “settled” for an Android phone and hopped over once the iPhone made its way to the carrier. I’m a happy Verizon Android user but I do get the appeal of Apple’s smartphone.
Looking forward, this could spell some interesting things for Apple if the next iPhones do wind up landing on T-Mobile or Sprint, as rumored. The iOS market share will surely get a significant pop with the new available customers but I’m sure that Android will continue to gain in popularity as it improves features, adds more apps and as it continues to offer different handset varieties.
Another exciting data point out of the Nielsen numbers is that smartphones were the majority of new cell phone purchases over the last few months. While it may be too soon to hold a funeral for the feature phone, that point is rapidly coming up. Let’s just hope that data prices come down so more people can bask in the smartphone glory.