The Politics of Smartphones: Apple, Android Chasing ‘Undecided’ Consumers

If you are already sick of the two U.S. political parties slugging it out for voters’ attention, get ready for a political drama closer to home: your smartphone. Yes, Apple and Android’s Google want you – specifically the ‘undecided’ amongst consumers yet to decide which smartphone to buy.

The smartphone “candidates” appear to have reached a stable base of consumers, with Android leading. Google’s mobile software has 40 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, adding just one percent since Nielsen checked in June. Apple’s iOS platform is No. 2 with 28 percent and flat growth. BlackBerry stands in third place with 19 percent and down one percent compared to last month.

The results equate to Apple and Android being the two major smartphone parties, leaving another 33 percent of other manufacturers to play the role of Ron Paul or another third-party candidate.

Ed Sutherland

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.