Nearly 50% of feature phone subscribers who bought a device during April 2012 switched to a smartphone, an increase of 9.5% from the previous year led by a continuous increase in smartphone adoption in the US, according to a new report from comScore.
The research firm’s study on US smartphone owners revealed that 61.5% of consumers acquired devices running the Google Android platform, with 25.2% choosing Apple devices and 7.1% opting for Microsoft smartphones.
comScore Mobile SVP Mark Donovan said the growing number of smartphones available to consumers, accompanied by the decrease in price points and surge in mobile media content, have made smartphone ownership possible and desirable for many more Americans.
"Within the year, we expect to see smartphone owners become the mobile majority, a milestone that represents not only the evolution of the mobile landscape but highlights the enormous potential for marketers as these powerful, ubiquitous devices open new opportunities to reach a growing audience of consumers," Mark added.
Around 110 million Americans owned a smartphone device in April 2012, a rise of 44% from the previous year.
The report found that 47.5% of feature phone subscribers in the US who purchased a device in April switched to a smartphone, an increase of 9.5% from the past year.
Slightly more than half or 50.7% of feature phone subscribers in the market for a device chose to acquire another feature phone, with this audience witnessing a rapid decline in the past year.
At the same time, about 61.5% of feature phone owners who purchased a smartphone in the three months ending in April chose a Google Android device, while another 25.2% opted for an Apple device.
Devices operating on the Microsoft platform accounted for 7.1% of acquired smartphones, while RIM represented 4.8%.
In comparison, among existing smartphone subscribers that acquired a new smartphone device in the past month, 54.2% chose Android devices while 33.5% preferred Apple devices.
