Nielsen recently published their findings on the status of smartphone users and demographics in the US and there are some interesting stats and observations that the AMU team will like to share. Note that this research is not meant to prove whether Android OS is better than iPhone OS, but instead hope to provide a quantitative analysis of the current smartphone market.
First up, as of Q1-10, the data shows that 23% of mobile consumers now have a smartphone, up from just 16% in Q2-09.
And out of these smartphones, guess which OSes dominates the market?
It should be noted that between Q4-09 and Q1-10, Android and iPhone’s share of the smartphone market grew by 2% each, smartphone leader Blackberry lost 2% share,while Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS also lost 2% to fall to 19%. Now, from this data, one of the possible observations is that although there is a lot of hype about Android being better than iPhone and vice versa, it seems that they are not cannibalizing each other market share! Instead, the ones that loses out are Blackberry and Windows Mobile. This observation is further supported by the next chart which shows the OS/brand loyalty of existing users.
In summary, 80% of iPhone users want their next device to run iPhone OS while 70% of Android users want another Android device. In comparison, only 47% of Blackberry users want another Blackberry and 34% of Windows Mobile users want another Windows Mobile device. This data also shows that the level of OS loyalty in iPhone and Android users are much higher than that of other OS users.
This is in sync with the "real world" situation around you. If you ask around your circle of friends who are current iPhone users, most likely, only 1 or 2 of them will consider switching to an Android phone for their next phone upgrade.
One more interesting observation but which is not shown directly in the data is that out of the existing Android and iPhone users who would like to switch operating systems, the rate at which existing Android users would like to try iPhone is twice as high as that of existing iPhone users who would try Android. Before iPhone supporters rejoice, bearing in mind that iPhone users currently numbered 3 times as much as Android users, this will mean that in absolute terms, more existing iPhone users will not mind switching to an Android phone for their next smartphone.
There is also a chart showing the gender breakdown of both iPhone and Android users and the income level of their users. Not much to say about the gender breakdown as both OSes have pretty much the same breakdown. But, if you correlate the age of Android/iPhone users with the data for income levels, you will find some interesting correlations. Android users tend to be slightly younger than their iPhone peers- 55% of Android users are under the age of 34 — while just 47% of iPhone users fall within the same demographic. As is usually the case, age is also a prime determinant of income and education. Thus, this will imply that Android users are slightly less wealthy and less educated in general.
To me, the fact that iPhone users tend to be slightly older than Android users should not come across as a surprise. Considering that Apple has, for the past 10 years, been cultivating a group of loyal and die hard fans of its iPods and its Macs, it was not hard to see the same type of loyalty shift to the next big product of Apple - the iPhone. For the Android however, it has only a history of 2+ years. During these 2 years, the consumer groups that would have been more willing to shift to the Android platform will most likely be:
A) The younger generation who is currently contemplating to purchase their first smartphone/mobile phone
B) The existing group of consumers who are not THAT loyal to their existing OS brand (the non-iPhone brands)
C) Existing consumers who do not have a smartphone but are currently using a normal mobile phone.
If there is a bigger proportion of users coming from Group A, then the data will make sense. The next chart should give us a good indication whether there is a bigger proportion of users coming from Group A.
From the usage profile chart above, we can see that iPhone customers are more likely to have downloaded a game or played online, but Android users appear to be using their phones for a wide range of activities. For the categories that have more tangible differences, we can see the following:
- iPhone has roughly 10% more usage than Android in online game playing category, and has around 5% more in five other categories (Email, App Downloads, Game Downloads, Mobile Commerce, and Full Track Music Downloads).
- Android has roughly 10% more usage than iPhone in SMS, MMS, Ringtone Downloads, and Wallpaper Downloads. Android also has roughly 5% more usage than iPhone in seven other categories (Location based services, Text alerts, Uploads, Picture downloads, Instant messaging, Video/mobile TV, and Video messaging).
This fits the profile of the relatively younger Android users as these users are more prone to making use of their phones for interaction with their peers. From this data however, we can also prove that unfortunately for Android, it means that the the quality and quantity of game apps have a lot to catching up to do!
That being said, I will hope to conclude this research findings by pointing out that the amount of advancement and market share that Android enjoy after just coming into play for 2+ years is just amazing. For the next 2 years, will one expect the market share of Android users to exceed that of the iPhone?
Do share your comments with us!
