In late 2011, the Nielsen Company reported that the number of mobile phone subscribers with a new smart phone has more than doubled over the past two years: from 18 percent to 44 percent. While the growth is impressive, Nielsen believes there is still room for more.
Among the surveys findings, 25–34 and 18–24 year olds continue to be the leading segments in smart phone ownership (64% and 53% respectively) and Apple is the top smart phone manufacturer in the U.S. with 28.6 percent of the smartphone market. Android, however, is the operating system most favored by manufacturers, with the largest share of the smartphone market at 44 percent.
In a surprising turn, the older generations use single player gaming applications more than the younger and rely on their mobile devices for productivity. Younger users prefer entertainment apps with social dimensions (e.g. Pandora, YouTube, Words with Friends) more than older segments.
Unsurprisingly, the younger groups still send the most messages but older segments are catching up with the number of messages sent by those 55+ more than doubling compared to 2009.