2010 was the year of the iPhone (again) as more Americans who planned on purchasing a smartphone intended to buy an iPhone – about 1/3rd. The 1st quarter of 2011 shows a clear shift in smartphone envy as Android is now the OS that 31% of Americans intend to buy next versus 30% planning on going iOS according to a quarterly survey by Nielson.
Recently purchased smartphones
People surveyed in March who had purchased a smartphone in the previous 6 months indicated that half of them had bought Android phones. While much of this success can still be attributed to the number of phones and carriers that support Android, it’s a sharp contrast to the other smartphone options, including iPhone.
Overall current smartphone marketshare
The increases in both desire and recent purchases have helped Android and iPhone to continue to outpace the competition as the gap widens against competitors such as Blackberry. Windows 7 phones continue to climb at a modest rate with their first double-digit showing on the survey. Symbian and Palm are all but lost.
Android has been gaining steam for a while now. I think that a lot of consumers like it because it is a more flexible, open alternative to the iPhone (which comes with all this Apple baggage), while not being as stodgy-seeming as the Blackberry (which comes with “business” baggage).