We reported on September 30, 2010 that Android was gaining ground on iPhone’s marketshare.
Four months later, Nielson shows us that the three major mobile operating systems (mobile OS’s) are in a three-way-tie (fig. 1). The inevitable battle for leadership can only be good for end customers, where value and features will be more readily compared before committing to a handset and platform.
FIG 1: SOURCE: NIELSEN 2010 http://mashable.com/2011/02/01/nielsen-smartphone-marketshare/
For Market Researchers this offers the hope of greater accessibility to the growing volume of people who can no longer be reached by traditional landline telephones.
The % of adults living in wireless-only households in the US in 2010 versus in 2007 (fig. 2) only enforces the need to consider adding mobile to their research toolkit.

FIG 2: SOURCE: ‘WIRELESS SUBSTITUTION: EARLY RELEASE OF ESTIMATES FROM THE NATIONAL HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY’, JANUARY - JUNE 2010 BY STEPHEN J. BLUMBERG, PH.D., AND JULIAN V. LUKE, DIVISION OF HEALTH INTERVIEW STATISTICS, NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS
Nielsen has also offered some interesting information about the change in trends for the segments of the community who are actively taking up smartphones in America. As you can see from the chart below (fig. 3), uptake of smartphones was led by Asians in Q4 2009, then Hispanics purchased more smartphones, until they equalized at 45% of each demographic owning a smartphone last quarter.

FIG 3: SOURCE: ‘Among Mobile Phone Users, Hispanics, Asians are Most-Likely Smartphone Owners in the U.S.’, 1 FEBRUARY 2010, NIELSON.
And if you look at, for example, Internet penetration for Hispanics in the USA (fig. 4) you will see that the growth in internet use is greater than a non-hispanic US audience. They are proving themselves to be early adopters and market-ready for lifestyle technology solutions.

FIG 4: SOURCE: ‘HOW DOES THE U.S. HISPANIC MARKET LOOK IN 2020?’, DR NADIA ASHRATAN, ELECTRONIC RETAILER MAGAZINE, 21 JAN 2010.
You will need to continue to be relevant to this audience and reach them where they are in order to gather information about their behaviour and purchasing expectations that clients will want. But how big is the market?
Dr. Nadia Ashrafian, CEO of Electronic Media Group, said that: “The U.S. Hispanic market ranks as the third largest “Latin American economy” behind Brazil and Mexico. According to U.S. Census data, there are more Hispanics living in the United States (50 million) than the entire population of Canada at 32.5 million. [They] are like a country within a country.
U.S. Hispanic purchasing power will surge to nearly $1 trillion by 2010–nearly three times the overall national rate over the past decade. In most categories, Hispanics spend more money than the general market. The top areas are groceries, telephone services, furniture, clothing, household products, ingestibles or “wellness” products, fitness products, as well as weight-loss products and automobiles.
Hispanic advertising by U.S. companies has grown 30 percent in 2009, compared with 8.6 percent for the general market. By mid-century, 25 percent or one out of every four people in the United States will be Hispanic and will represent 25 percent of the total population.”
So if 45% of Hispanics own a smartphone and you want to reach anywhere from 5-51% of them who are otherwise unreachable, and tap into nearly 5-51% of $1 trillion then you may just want to consider some kind of mobile feedback mechanism.
The same point could be made for Asian and Pacific Islanders, or anyone else who lives in a cell-phone only household. As we see response rates for email opens decline and market penetration for smartphones rising we see opportunities with smartphones in recruitment , engagement and data quality sharply increasing.


entry of WebOs, Android and the like. But have you ever browsed the mobile web on anything other than a Palm, Windows Mobile, iPhone or Blackberry? It's miserable. My Samsung SPH-a920 is awesome - I'd recommend it to anyone, as long as you don't brwose the mobile web.