iOS and Android were nearly neck-and-neck in winning the favor of new smartphone buyers during December 2011, according to a recent report by Nielsen. While Android still dominated in overall market share both in current and new smartphone owners for the quarter, iOS was able to raise its share of new smartphone sales from 25.1 percent in October to 44.5 percent in December, nearly meeting Android’s 46.9 percent.
Nielsen suspects that the October launch of the iPhone 4S contributed to the closing gap, though surprisingly, only 57 percent of new iPhone owners surveyed in December got an iPhone 4S.
Android captured 46.3 percent of the total smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2011, and 51.7 percent of “3-month recent acquirers,” or people who had gotten their device within the last three months. By contrast, 30 percent of smartphone owners in the fourth quarter and 37 percent of recent acquirers had iOS devices.
Other platforms did not fare so well: while BlackBerry-powered phones were owned by 14.9 percent of all smartphone users, only 6 percent of recent acquirers picked one up. Windows Phone’s overall share was small in both segments: 1.3 percent of all users, and 1.4 percent of recent acquirers.
Android’s increasing share was no doubt helped by the US launch of the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Motorola Droid Razr, but the Android 4 flagship Samsung Galaxy Nexus likely arrived too late to help much in the Q4 market share charge.
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