But 55- to 64-year olds who make more than $100,000 a year are big buyers too
"Whether or not you have a smartphone is closely related to both how old you are and how much money you make," finds a Nielsen survey of 20,000 Americans with mobile phones conducted in January. I quote:
While overall smartphone penetration stood at 48 percent in January, those in the 24-34 age group showed the greatest proportion of smartphone ownership, with 66 percent saying they had a smartphone. In the same age group, 8 of 10 of those that had gotten a new device in the last three months chose a smartphone. Among those who chose a device in the last three months, more than half of those under 65 had chosen a smartphone.
No big surprises there. The twist in the report issued Monday is that when age and income are both taken into account, older subscribers with higher incomes are more likely to pack a smartphone. For example, those 55-64 making over 100K a year are almost as likely to carry a smartphone as those in the 35-44 age bracket making 35-75K per year.
In Nielsen's most recent survey of smartphone operating system shares, conducted in November before the bulk of iPhone 4S sales, Apple (AAPL) was the No. 1 manufacturer with 28.3% of the U.S. market, but Google's (GOOG) Android had the largest market share (42.8%). See chart below.
Between October and Christmas, Apple's U.S. sales nearly caught up to Android's
Click to enlarge. Source: Nielsen
Three findings stand out in Nielsen's December survey of the U.S. mobile phone market, released Wednesday:
Among recent smartphone buyers, 44.5% of those surveyed in December bought an Apple (AAPL) iPhone, up from 25.1% in October
57% of new iPhone buyers said they chose the iPhone 4S over the less expensive iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS
Android's MORE
Teenage females lead the way, averaging 3,952 messages per month. (Males: 2,815.)
Click to enlarge.
Although teenage females (does anyone still call them girls?) lead the way in texting, teenage males consume more data. Analyzing the monthly cell phone bills of roughly 65,000 mobile subscribers, Nielsen discovered that males age 13-17 took in 382 MB per month while their female counterparts used 266 MB.
Overall, mobile data usage among teens of both sexes was up 256% MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 15, 2011 11:37 AM ET
Apple is the top manufacturer (28.6% share), Android the top operating system (44.2%)
Click to enlarge. Source: Nielsen
Nielsen (NLSN), which is fighting hard to be for mobile media what it was for television, pulled out all the stops in its State of the Media report for the third quarter of 2011.
Drawing on monthly surveys of 25,000 Americans (300,000 per year), it found, among other things:
44% now carry smartphones. Ownership is highest MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 15, 2011 9:00 AM ET
83% of the apps downloaded in the past month were for a Google or Apple phone
Click to enlarge. Source: Nielsen
The U.S. smartphone market is starting to look like a two-horse race, judging from data scheduled to be released Wednesday by a Nielsen general manager at AppNation III in San Francisco. Among the new findings:
44% of all U.S. mobile subscribers now own a smartphone
56% of the mobile phones purchased in MORE
The iPod touch (30%) and iPhone (27%) came in second and third in the 2011 wish list
Click to enlarge. Source: Nielsen
Apple's (AAPL) iPad topped a new Nielsen survey of the most desired electronics products among young Americans this holiday season.
Among kids 6-12, Apple scored a hat trick, with the iPad (44%) first, the iPod touch (30%) second and the iPhone (27%) third.
In a similar survey last year, the iPad came MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 17, 2011 1:12 PM ET
But adoption varies greatly by age. Most Americans under 44 already carry a smartphone
Click to enlarge.
In the rapidly growing U.S. smartphone market, Google's (GOOG) Android and Apple's (AAPL) iPhone seem to have reached a steady state.
According to the third quarter Nielsen survey of the market, issued Thursday, 43% of Americans now own smartphones, up 5 percentage points in the past six months. Within that 43%, according to Nielsen, Android has MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 3, 2011 8:00 AM ET
Of those purchased in last 3 months, 56% were Androids. iPhone holds steady at 28%.
Click to enlarge.
The results of a Nielsen survey conducted in August and released Monday reinforced several ongoing trends:
The smartphone pie is getting bigger. While 43% of all mobile subscribers in the U.S. had a smartphone as of August, according to Nielsen, 58% of those who bought a new mobile phone in the last 3 months chose a smartphone MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 26, 2011 10:59 AM ET
The next contender: Samsung, whose Android phones are gaining fast
Data: Strategy Analytics. Chart: PED
The companies that track mobile phone sales are just now catching up to the news that came out of Apple's (AAPL) last week. According to the company's Q3 earnings report, Apple sold nearly 20.24 million iPhones last quarter, up 142% from the same quarter last year.
On Thursday, IDC reported that that makes Apple the world's No. MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 29, 2011 8:06 AM ET
The effect of the long-awaited launch of an iPhone for Verizon, or a bump from the iPad 2?
Click to enlarge. Source: Nielsen
During the rapid ascent of Google (GOOG) Android phones in 2010 it was never clear how much their popularity was due to the fact that Apple's (AAPL) iPhone was available in the U.S. on only one carrier -- AT&T (T) -- with somewhat spotty coverage.
The test was supposed MORE
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