A recent Nielsen Company report revealed that U.S. consumers rate Apple and Google Android phones as the most desirable, but men, apparently, prefer Android OS phones, whereas women prefer the Apple iPhone.
Smart phones, which have a nearly 30 percent penetration in the U.S. mobile device market, are led by the Apple iOS (27.9 percent), RIM’s BlackBerry (27.4 percent) and Android (22.7 percent). Of consumers queried about plans to upgrade their current phones, 35 percent picked iOS, 28 percent Android and 15 percent BlackBerry. Interestingly enough, more feature phone owners were interested in migrating to Android (28 percent) than Apple (25 percent) and left BlackBerry in the dust (11 percent).
The preference by gender was also clear: Of females looking for a new smart phone, 30.9 percent opted for the iPhone, and only 22.8 percent are interested in Android. For men, however, 32.6 percent want an Android phone, and 28.6 percent want an iPhone.
In the 18-to-24-year-old group, 35.9 percent of respondents opt for the iPhone, with 32 percent leaning toward Android. The difference narrows in the 25-to-34 group (31.9 percent versus 29.8 percent) and flips for the 35-to-52 group (27.4 percent for Android and 26.3 percent for Apple).
