Smartphones knock feature phones out of the ballpark

New data shows that two-thirds of new mobile buyers in the U.S. are buying smartphones over feature phones, and the majority of those buyers favor Android.

by Dara Kerr

July 12, 2012 4:59 PM PDT Follow @darakerr

(Credit: Josh Long/CNET)

Recently ditched your feature phone for a smartphone? You're not alone. Two out of three people in the U.S. who bought a new phone in the last three months opted for a smartphone, according to new data from research firm Nielsen.

During the second quarter of this year, "smartphone penetration continued to grow, with 54.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers owning smartphones as of June 2012," Nielsen wrote in a blog post today.

According to Nielsen, the smartphones of choice in the U.S. are Android, which has 51.8 percent of the country's market. Apple's iPhone is quite a bit behind with 34.3 percent. And, BlackBerry is in a tiny league of its own with only 8.1 percent of the smartphone population.

This data is strikingly similar to information released yesterday by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, which showed that besides the U.S., Android reigns in several other major markets, including the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Australia. In all of these countries, ComTech said that Google's mobile OS took at least half of all smartphone sales in the last four months.

Check out CNET's story on the near future of smartphones, which looks at all the new phones from Google, Apple, Microsoft, and RIM.