Most US mobiles to be smartphones by 2011
By the end of 2011, most mobile phones in the US will be smartphones, according to new research from Nielsen.
It found that the share of smartphones as a proportion of overall device sales has increased to 29% for phone purchasers in the last six months, with 45% of respondents to a Nielsen survey indicating that their next device will be a smartphone.
Nielsen said: “The iPhone, Blackberry, Droid and smartphones in general dominate the buzz in the mobile market, but only 21% of American wireless subscribers are using a smartphone as of the fourth quarter 2009 compared to 19% in Q3 2009 and 14% at the end of 2008.
“We are just at the beginning of a new wireless era where smartphones will become the standard device consumers will use to connect to friends, the internet and the world at large.”
It added that slightly more males than females are getting smartphones (53% versus 47%) which is what it expects for technical early adopter products.
Deloitte recently reported that approximately one in five UK consumers now owns a smartphone.