57 Percent of US BlackBerry Owners Would Rather Not Be
Given the number of Android smartphones currently available in the United States and the number of carriers peddling them, is it really all that surprising that they outsold Apple’s iPhone in the last quarter? Far more surprising is the fact that this is the first time they’ve done so to date–after all, the iPhone is available in the States in just two models on a single carrier.
So as revelations go, Nielsen’s announcement this morning that Android now represents 27 percent of new U.S. smartphone purchases, ahead of the iPhone’s 23 percent, is more of a “what took so long” than a “Breaking Away”-style victory. More interesting are the research house’s observations on user loyalty, particularly with regard to Research in Motion (click image to enlarge).
Among current iPhone owners, 89 percent say their next handset will be another iPhone, six percent say it will be an Android device and two percent claim it will be a BlackBerry.
Among current Android device owners, 71 percent say their next handset will also run Android, 21 percent say it will be an iPhone, and three percent say it will be a BlackBerry.
Obviously, quite a bit of loyalty in the market for both. But what about for the BlackBerry, which claims a 35 percent share of the U.S. smartphone market–greater than iPhone or Android?
Not even close. Only 42 percent of current BlackBerry owners are loyal to the device–29 percent say their next smartphone will be an iPhone; 21 percent say it will be an Android device; and seven percent say it won’t be either of those three.
So more than half of the BlackBerry’s current U.S. user base plans to dump it for a rival device first chance it gets. A troubling metric for RIM, but one that may begin to change this week if the company debuts BlackBerry OS 6 and the BlackBerry 9800, as expected.