Most choose Android in the US

According to an August survey, 43 percent of all smartphone owners have an Android device. But if you ask only those who got a new smartphone in the past three months what kind of phone they chose, more than half (56%) will tell you they picked an Android device. The preferences of these so-called “recent acquirers” are important as they are often a leading indicator of where the market is going.

Apple iOS remains popular in second place with 28 percent of all smartphone users, and the same percentage among those who recently got a new device. But those figures could change quickly in the months to come. Every time Apple launches a new iPhone or makes it available on a new wireless carrier, there is an increase in their sales.

Changes in share aside, the smartphone pie is getting bigger. While 43 percent of all mobile subscribers in the US had a smartphone as of August, 58 percent of those who got a new device in the last 3 months chose a smartphone over a feature phone. The holiday season and the launch of new devices like the next iPhone could further accelerate smartphone adoption, though this is always tempered by the fact that many consumers are unwilling or unable to break their service contracts before they expire. In any event, the growing popularity of app-and-media friendly smartphones spells tremendous opportunity for those advertisers, publishers and developers eager to leverage mobile media.

Smartphones Everywhere!

The old fake out that you are on the phone with someone is not as rare as you might think. Out of every 13 Americans 1 employs this strategy to put off someone they do not want to talk with face to face, or they simply want to send the signal of lesser respect.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project executed the poll and probed the benefits and drawbacks to owning a cell phone. The convenience of the phone can be both a blessing and a curse, but more often than not it’s a blessing. More than 50% of cell phone owners used their phones a minimum of one time to obtain info they required in a hurry. However, 27% said they were in a precarious situation in the last 30 days where they needed their phone, but did not have it. It was even higher, 42%, for young adults between the ages of 18 and 29.

Everyone expects the cell phone to be ready for emergency use. So you may not be shocked to learn that 40% of owners claimed their phones were handy in at least one emergency scenario. Smartphones put the final touches on turning a cell phone into a complete waste of time – oh, I mean an entertainment solution. As a result, over 40% phone users rely on their phone to distract them while bored. That figure jumps to 70% for young adults, of ages 18-29.

On the other hand, cell phone can infuriate their owners. Downloads taking excessive time frustrates 20% phone owners, while 16% were exasperated due to their attempt to read their tiny screen. Finally, a mere 10% claimed they were put out while inputting large amounts of text.

The Pew research reported that phone users access mobile email more than mobile social media, at 38% and 29% respectively. It came as no surprise, since both Nielsen and comScore uncovered a trend in growing mobile email. The survey included 2800 Americans and it revealed that smartphones are used differently by their owners than the more basic ones are by theirs.

Texting and snapping photos is far more popular among smartphone owners than feature phone users, 92% as opposed to 59%. Actually sending images to other people is a bit lower at 80% and 36% respectively. There is even a bigger gap when reporting Internet access. Smartphone owners came in at 84%, while feature phone owners at 15%.

As prices continue to drop, more and more people will jump on the smartphone train by becoming an owner, and as more people buy smartphones more greater use, features, and applications will come about.

The Boom of Mobile Internet

More people in the United States will access the web via mobile devices than via wireline computers by 2015, according to a new study from IDC.

“Forget what we have taken for granted on how consumers use the Internet,” said Karsten Weide, IDC research vice president of media and entertainment, in a statement. “Soon, more users will access the Web using mobile devices than using PCs, and it’s going to make the Internet a very different place.”

The statistic isn’t exactly shocking when you consider the staggering number of smartphones with data plans being sold today. But it does confirm just how fast that number is growing, and it sheds light on how user behavior will likely change during the next few years. With faster 4G network speeds and increased coverage, it’s easy to see that many users would simply use their connected phones or tablets rather than PCs reliant on a home or work connection.

Specifically, IDC predicts that the number of U.S. mobile web users will grow annually by a compound growth rate of 16.6% between 2010 and 2015. The study also predicts that the total number of Internet users in the world will grow from 2 billion in 2010 to 2.7 billion in 2015, giving 40 percent of the world access.

Based on these predictions, mobile device and web adoption will continue growing at an incredible rate. Consumers are hungry for the latest mobile devices, especially from market leaders like Apple and Samsung, and it’s unlikely they’ll be satiated any time soon.

Smartphone Use Grows

We all know that smartphones are everywhere and becoming even more affordable than anyone ever thought. You might have to pay $50 or more for two-years to get one in your possession, but you do get one. The United States has seen a large increase in smartphone use over the last 3 months among those ages 13 and higher. A report out from ComScore shows that US smartphone use has gone up about 10 full percent points in the last three months ending in July. ComScore is an agency that tracks business analytics and measures statistic of various digital measurements. In this report the company was looking at the mobile phone industry during the months of May, June and July 2011.

In those three months, 234 million smartphone users in the United States above the age of 13 used their smartphones. With this information, ComScore was also able to see what providers, operating systems and manufactures led the pack. With over 25 percent of the pie was Samsung, which had the most US subscribers and that was up 1 percent. LG, Motorola, Apple and RIM came along right after Samsung and all with their subscriber counts rising over the last three months.

What operating system was the most used over that time period? If you guessed Android, you would be right and the market share for Android was up over 5 percent to 41.8 percent total market share. Apple is still trailing Android with about 27 percent, but their numbers were up also. RIM, Microsoft and Symbian were the next three companies on the list and their numbers were on the rise as well. The overall growth of smartphone use was evident with the 82.2 million smartphone users during those three months, which was up 10 percent from the previous three months.

All of this information is quite interesting to say the least and other stats available on the report included social networking usage found that over 30 percent of users visit social networking or blog sites on their phone. Of the smartphone users, 27 percent used games and about 20 percent listened to music on their smartphones. Text messaging is also the most popular activity on smartphones with over 70 percent of the users engaging in texting. Browsing the Web was up to 41 percent and downloading apps went up almost 3 points to 40 percent.

40% of All Mobile Phones

Forty percent of mobile consumers over 18 in the U.S. now have smartphones, according to July 2011 data from Nielsen. Android is the most popular operating system, with 40 percent of mobile consumers reporting they have a smartphone with an Android OS. Apple’s iOS is in second place, with 28 percent.

Among those who say they are likely to get a new smartphone in the next year, approximately one third say they want their next smartphone to be an iPhone and one third say they want an Android device. However, among those who say they are usually the first to embrace new technologies, “Innovators” or the earliest of early adopters, Android leads as the “Next Desired Operating System” – 40 percent for Android compared to 32 percent for iOS. (Survey respondents were asked several questions to determine their attitudes toward new technologies.)

Among likely smartphone upgraders, it is the “Late Adopters” who are most likely to say they are “not sure” which operating system they’d like in their next smartphone. In politics as in smartphones, these “undecideds” will be the ones device makers will be hoping to win over.