Nielsen: Android OS Now Preferred Over iOS and BlackBerry

We find it interesting that the latest report by Nielsen, the global market research leader, showed that the smartphone market (in the United States in this particular case) can be very volatile to the point that such inconstancy happens in a very short span of time.

Just before the end of last year, Nielsen came up with their market research results revealing that the US mobile consumers have chosen Apple’s iOS (27.9%) over Google’s Android Operating System (22.7%) according to the Smartphone OS Market Share data as of October 2010. Moreover, said survey further showed that 33% were bent on getting the iOS smartphone more popularly known as the iPhone while only 26% were thinking of getting an Android handset if and when they decide to acquire a new smartphone.

Now using the same research plan, Nielsen conducted the survey from January to March of 2011 and came up with surprising results. Based on the data collected, Android has eventually taken over iOS’ spot as the most desired smartphone with 31% of consumers indicated to have become more partial to Google’s Android in the event that they will replace their mobile handsets. This has left iPhone to be the runner-up with a 30% rate bearing a very close margin of only 1% in favor of Android. Meanwhile, Research in Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry has decreased to 11% from last survey results which is 13%. Microsoft and Nokia’s announcement of their merger did nothing to help Microsoft Windows Mobile’s ranking as said OS remains on the 4th place in terms of consumer desirability. Equally notable is the fact that 20% or a fifth are still not decided on what smartphone to purchase next.

Another significant findings in this study is that from among those who have recently obtained their smartphones, 50% of the respondents have taken an Android handset while merely 25% chose to get the iPhone. The remaining quarter is shared by BlackBerry, WP7, Palm/Web and Symbian.

This leads us to Nielsen’s Market Share figures which reveled that present mobile consumers is predominantly composed of Android users who represents 37% of the market. Apple’s iOS has eventually ousted RIM on the second place by gathering 27% share while RIM’s BlackBerry slid to the third with 22%. Nielsen however did not include the demographic results for this report this time.

Android has indeed come a long way and is amazingly becoming more popular than ever.