“The competition between smartphone operating systems is a heated one. When it comes to the installed base, U.S. mobile consumers who already own smartphones, Apple’s iOS leads with 28%, followed closely by RIM BlackBerry and Google’s Android, each with 27%,” Don Kellogg, Senior Manager, Telecom Practice Research and Insights, reports for The Nielsen Company.
Kellogg reports, “As of December 2010, nearly a third (31%) of all mobile consumers in the United States owned smartphones, cellphones with app-based, web-enabled operating systems. But smartphone penetration is even higher among mobile users who are part of ethnic and racial minorities in the U.S. – namely Asian/Pacific Islanders (45%), Hispanics (45%) and African-Americans (33%), populations that also tend to skew younger. Meanwhile, only 27 percent of White mobile users reported owning a smartphone.”
Kellogg reports, “Apple’s iOs is the favorite among U.S. smartphone owners who are Asians/Pacific Islanders. Thirty-six percent of Asian/Pacific Islander who own smartphones have iPhones. On the other hand, RIM Blackberry is preferred by 31 percent of African-American smartphone owners.”
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@Dave H – Maybe in the future… Right now, the USA dominates worldwide smartphone shipments. This is why Nokia is going down… almost ZERO presence in North America (besides a crappy OS)
Notice the flat share growth of iOS…. while Android is growing in leaps & bounds…
Coupled with the growth potential in Asia, this is why it was CRITICAL for Apple to develop a CDMA iPhone. Get it on Verizon to GROW share, and get it onto the Asian 3G CDMA carriers like KDDI in Japan, China Telecom, as well as the Korean 3G CDMA carriers.