If you own a mobile phone device in the US, the chances are now slightly more than 50/50 that it"s a smartphone. That"s the determination of a new survey by Nielsen today, which said that 50.4 percent of all US mobile phone owners now have a smartphone. The results are based on a survey taken in March 2012 and are up from 47.8 percent in December 2011.
Of those US smartphone owners, 48.5 percent own an Android-based device, while 32 percent owned an iOS (iPhone)-based smartphone. Blackberry devices are a distant third with 11.6 percent. Owners of smartphones with the older Windows Mobile OS still hold onto a 4.1 percent market share in the US, while the newer Windows Phone had 1.7 percent. The survey was taken before the release of Nokia"s Lumia 900 in the US.
Nielsen"s survey also showed that 50.9 percent of female mobile phones owners had a smartphone in March 2012, compared to 50.1 percent for men. Over two-thirds mobile phone owners age 25-34 have a smartphone and a majority of Asian Americans, Hispanics and African American mobile phone owners now have smartphones. White US smartphone owners are still in the minority, with just 44.7 percent of mobile phone owners in that ethnic group owning such a device.