Nielsen: US Smartphone Penetration Hits 40 Percent, Android In The Lead

Similar to results posted by comScore earlier this week, a new report from research firm Nielsen is also showing Android in the lead with a 40 percent share of the US smartphone market. Additionally, Nielsen's survey looks at the entire mobile phone market, revealing that smartphone market share is quickly catching up to that of feature phones or "dumb phones."

Smartphone penetration in the US market has now reached 40 percent for the three month period ending in July. Feature phones still dominate with 60 percent, but that number will continue to shrink, with a recent prediction from IHS iSuppli suggesting that smartphones would surpass feature phones by 2015.

Of that 40 percent of the US mobile market that belongs to smartphones, Android leads with 40 percent smartphone market share followed by Apple's iPhone with 28 percent. In third place is RIM's BlackBerry with 19 percent, but the platform has continued to slide over the past several months. The rest of the pie is made up of Microsoft's Windows Mobile at 7 percent and its Windows Phone 7 at only 1 percent. The category "Other" makes up 5 percent.

With the imminent launch of the major overhaul that is the Windows Phone 7 Mango update along with various new Mango handsets and several big announcements to come from all manufacturers in the coming months, including the iPhone 5, Nexus Prime, and a myriad of powerful Android phones, it will be interesting to see how things shift.

What's also interesting is Nielsen's survey on the "Next Desired Operating System" per demographic categories. Among "Innovators" Android wins 40 percent with iOS at 32 percent, while iOS takes a slight lead with "Early Adopters." The two still take the lead with "Late Adopters" although 30 percent in that category are unsure. Desire for Microsoft and RIM's platforms remain relatively small throughout all categories.