The number of people planning to buy an Android-based phone in the next 90 days jumped to 30 percent in March, nine points higher than the December survey conducted by ChangeWave. First-adopters interested in buying an iPhone over the next three months hit 29 percent, inching up just a single point since December. The researchers Wednesday described the results as a “monster wave of demand for Android OS phones.”
While a 9 point increase doesn’t seem like a “monster wave of demand,” compared to six months ago, it is a five-fold jump, the researchers said.
According to ChangeWave, although RIM current leads the pack with 38 percent of the market, preference for buying a BlackBerry fell 5 points to 13 percent. Demand for Windows OS smartphones slid one point and phones based on Palm OS or Web OS were stuck in neutral.
On a brighter note, Apple still outpaces other smartphone makers when it comes to customer satisfaction. Apple had a 77 percent satisfaction rating, compared to HTC, which scored the next-highest rating of 41 percent. RIM scored 38 percent satisfaction while Droid-maker Motorola stands at 34 percent.
The survey conducted between March 9 and March 23 asked 4,040 consumers.
[via Fortune, ChangeWave]
