Archive for April, 2011

Google’s Android operating system already runs on more smartphones than any other OS, and Android phones may also be the most desired.

According to a Nielsen Co. survey of U.S. cellphone consumers conducted from January to March of this year, 31% said they planned on buying a new smartphone and that Android was their preferred OS.

A close second was Apple’s iOS, which runs on the iPhone, with 30% of those surveyed saying they wanted the smartphones from Steve Jobs & Co. above all other options, Nielsen said.

Research In Motion’s BlackBerry smartphone were coveted by 11% of respondents, while about 20% said they didn’t know for sure what they would choose, Nielsen said.

Not all that long ago Apple was edging out Google.

From July to September of 2010, a Nielsen survey found, Apple’s iPhone was the most wanted smartphone.

About 33% of consumers surveyed in that period said they wanted an Apple iPhone, while 26% said they would choose Android phones and 13% said they planned on picking up a BlackBerry phone.

“Those dynamics are already translating into sales,” Nielsen said in a blog post reporting the findings. “Half of those surveyed in March 2011 who indicated they had purchased a smartphone in the past six months said they had chosen an Android device. A quarter of recent acquirers said they bought an iPhone and 15% said they had picked a BlackBerry phone.”

As of March, 37% of smartphone owners in the U.S. had phones running Android, while 27% owned iPhones, the research firm said.

Both, however, are beating the BlackBerry, which accounted for a 22% share of the market, Nielsen said.