Half of All U.S. Mobile Phones Are Now Smartphones

Nearly half (49.7%) of all U.S. mobile phone subscribers now own smartphones, according to Nielsen data from February 2012.

This number is a huge increase from last year when only 36% of mobile subscribers owned smartphones. This growth is driven by increased smartphone purchases with Nielsen estimating that more than two-thirds of new mobile phone purchases in the last three months have been smartphones rather than feature phones.

Overall, Android continues to lead the smartphone market in the U.S., with 48 percent of smartphone owners saying they owned an Android OS device. Nearly a third (32.1%) of smartphone users have an Apple iPhone, and Blackberry owners represented another 11.6 percent of the smartphone market. Among recent acquirers who got their smartphone within the last three months, 48 percent of those surveyed in February said they chose an Android and 43 percent bought an iPhone.