Android Smartphone Buyers Top the Survey (2012)

A consumer electronics survey firm, Nielsen recently released a survey report in which they stated that almost one in the three people who have bought a Smartphone in the past six months snapped up an Android Powered Handset. This means that the Android grabs the number one spot as far as the Smartphone market is considered, leaving the elusive Smartphone elites iPhone and RIM's Blackberry Handset to have a tough competition for the second spot.


These new figures that are released by Nielsen are just the fresh numbers in a series of surveys that have been carried out before, and all of these surveys clearly indicate that the search giant Google Android Platform is sort of dominating the Smartphone market. This domination is at the expense of the previous un-disputed champions of Smartphone makers, Apple and BlackBerry Research In Motion.

But when it comes to the overall Smartphone market share in U.S, RIM's Smartphone Blackberry is still on the top spot with a 31 percent share as of August 2010. Although, Blackberry sales numbers are impressive but they have gone low by almost 5 percent as compared to their numbers in January. Nielsen survey also gave the numbers for iPhone, Apple's super hit Smartphone held a total share of almost 28 percent in the month of August, and if these numbers are compared to as of January, Apple has been going on a steady pace with no sharp decline or raise.

Although, Android scored the third position with an overall 19 percent share in the Smartphone market of U.S, but it has come from a long way down. Back in January, Android was standing at 8 percent in total, so it means that it has doubled or tripled its share in the market in just six months.

So when the survey company, Nielsen, turned its attention to Smartphone sales in the recent months and the trend of the shoppers who have bought a Smartphone within the past 4-5 months, it turned out that Android based Smartphones were at the top spot with a total of 32 percent market share while the other Smartphone giants including iPhone and Blackberry took the tailing behind Google's platform.

Some previous surveys by other companies that have analyzed the Smartphone markets, Android gains versus iPhone took a flat, because nobody took account of this solid fact that iPhone 4 in its first weekend of release sold about 2 million handsets which is a staggering number.

Nielsen survey paints a different picture; according to the survey, the Android based Smartphones market surged in the 1st month, the iPhone went on for sale. Between the month of July and August, Android Smartphone market share jumped from 28-32 percent while on the other hand, Apple's iPhone sales numbers fell from 26 percent to 25 percent.

So the question which baffles the mind of every tech analyst and Smartphone enthusiastic is that why the Android based phones are making such a fast headway? The answer can be an amalgamation of many facts but the most obvious fact is that Android phones in the market are available in a variety of models as compared to an iPhone. In this summer season alone, a multitude of Smartphones and devices were released that were having Google's Android software. Devices like HTC EVO 4G released by carrier Sprint and Samsung Vibrant by T-Mobile are all high-end Smartphones released by wireless and other service providers.

Some of these phones are equipped with 1 GHz processors and HD cameras. iPhone houses impressive features as well but when the variety is gauged, then iPhone released only one model in this year as compared to the dozen other models released having Android OS in them.

Carrier issue is one other reason that has caused an increase in the market share of Android Phones. iPhone till now is available only on AT&T but Android devices are available on four Major U.S carriers.

Now come over to the pricing issue; the latest iPhone 4 sells at $199 with a two-year contract but when we come to Android Smartphones we can get hands on some serious bargains. Verizon currently has a buy one get one deal for its Android phone that is HTC Droid Incredible. Moreover, Samsung Captivate Smartphone is also available free of cost with a package from Wireless Service.

So, it's still hard to speculate that who will dominate the Smartphone market in the times to come but it is clearly visible that Android is going to become an undisputed King in the times ahead.