Apple has squeaked by RIM’s BlackBerry, giving the iPhone 27.9 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, versus 27.4 percent for the Canadian handset maker, according to Nielsen Company researchers. Meanwhile, Google’s Android platform has 22.7 percent of the American market, with Microsoft Windows Mobile hanging on in third place with 14 percent.
Earlier this month, RIM’s CEO blamed “Apple’s distortion field” for talk that the BlackBerry maker had fallen behind the Cupertino, Calif. firm lead by CEO Steve Jobs. “We’ve now passed RIM, and I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future,” Jobs had remarked.
Today’s research also found Apple’s iOS is the “most desired” smartphone operating system, chosen by 35 percent of smrtphone owners, versus 28 percent of handset owners who picked the Android platform. Apple lead among those ages 55 and up, between 18 and 24 and consumers 25 to 34 years old. The iPhone is preferred by women while Android has a slight edge with men, according to the researchers.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
