There may be a lot of things iPhone users have that Android users don’t, and vice versa, but according to recent figures released by Nielsen, more Android users are using their phones for data and Web usage purposes than other smartphone users.
While Jerry Rocha, senior director of Nielsen’s Online Division, notes that his company doesn’t view the new Droid by Motorola as an iPhone killer, “What the Droid will do is advance the use and adoption of web content to a connected device.”
Nielsen’s data from the third quarter of 2009 shows that smartphone users who are on an Android device are more likely to use data features than other users, including those of the iPhone family.
Ninety-two percent of Android users access the Internet through their phones in the third quarter, compared to 88 percent of those using iPhones, 71 percent of all smartphone users and 22 percent of all mobile subscribers.
With regards to apps, 76 percent of Android users utilized these on their phones, compared to 74 percent of iPhone users, 48 percent of all smartphone users and 12 percent of all mobile subscribers. This is a bit surprising, given the huge application library iPhone has available compared to Android’s relatively small one.
Video usage shows a similar picture, with 47 percent of Android users accessing them through their phones, compared to 40 percent of iPhone users, 22 percent of smartphone users and 7 percent of all mobile subscribers.
Rocha notes that the third quarter marked the first time Nielsen observed more users accessing the Internet on smartphones (52 percent) than on feature phones (48 percent).
“If this trend continues, we’ll see more than 80% of the devices accessing the Internet being these advanced phones,” he notes in his blog post.
The post also mentions that in the third quarter, “historically the slowest phone sales quarter,” 25 percent of all phones sold were smartphones. Nielsen expects this number to surge to 40 percent in the fourth quarter.
“This is important to watch as smartphones are on track to be the majority of phones in the U.S. by 2011,” Rocha wrote. Nielsen projects that smartphones could cross the 50-percent mark by the middle of 2011, which would mean approximately 150 million Americans would be using smartphones.
Rocha also notes that Hispanics and African-Americans utilize video/mobile TV and Internet functions on their mobile phones more than other demographics.
“While not a competition killer, the Droid is the next logical step in a market with a wide array of rich media devices,” Rocha concludes. “As that trend continues, the battle for better smartphones with better access to content will wind up seeing the consumer as the clear winner.”
Sources:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/the-droid-is-this-the-smartphone-consumers-are-looking-for/
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117275
Digg 
