Android Stretches US Lead To 37% Smartphone Share

Google’s Android operating system rose to 37 percent US market share, compared with 27 percent for Apple’s iPhone through March, according to data gathered by US market researcher Nielsen.

That is up eight percent from Nielsen’s March 3 report, accounting for January sales, when the researcher said Android notched 29 percent, breaking a statistical tie with Apple’s iOS and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry platforms.

Nielsen also detected a shift in user perceptions, reflected in Android’s position, which has happened rapidly in the last six months.

Android Gaining Thought Leadership

When Nielsen surveyed mobile consumers from July to September 2010, one-third of the respondents said they wanted an iPhone, compared with 26 percent who said a handset running Android was on their shopping list. However, when Nielsen conducted the same survey from January through March 2011, 31 percent of consumers who plan to acquire a new smartphone said they were looking to buy an Android device. This gave it a marginal lead over the iPhone which dipped to 30 percent.

A Nielsen follow-up has shown that 50 percent of those surveyed in March 2011 who had purchased a smartphone in the past six months said they had picked an Android device. Some 25 percent of these recent purchasers said they bought an iPhone, no doubt buoyed by the launch of the iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless, while 15 percent said they had picked a BlackBerry phone.

Nielsen now rates BlackBerry as third in the US with 22 percent of the market.

Nielsen is not the only vendor to chart Android’s rise. ComScore said earlier this month that Android now commands 33 percent of the US smartphone share, compared with 25 percent for the iPhone. However, the researcher also noted last week that the prevalence of Apple iOS on all devices outpaced Android gadgets by 59 percent. Specifically, the researcher claimed iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches combined to reach 37.9 million users, compared with 23.8 million combined Android smartphone and users of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom and other Android tablets.