A pair of studies released Monday have revealed that nearly half of U.S. consumers own a smartphone, and more and more are turning to their phones to solve the problem of the moment.
A study by Nielsen on Monday showed that 50.4 percent of all mobile subscribers owned a smartphone, as of March - the first time that smartphones outsold feature phones since Nielsen began tracking both several years ago. Moreover, the number of users with an Android phone continues to increase, reaching nearly half of all smartphone owners.
Smartphones, almost by definition, include the ability to access the combined knowledge of the Internet, either through a browser or the thousands of apps available via online app stores. Not surprisingly, Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project found that consumers tapped into the mobile computing and sharing power those smartphones offer.
For example, 41 percent of users coordinated a meeting or a get-together within the past 30 days. Another 35 percent used their phone to settle an argument, while 30 percent used the phone to select a restaurant. And about 27 percent used their phone to settle an argument, probably by looking up something on the Internet.
Less common tasks included the ability to get traffic or public transit information (20 percent) and to get help an emergency (19 percent).
Younger cell phone users are more likely than older users to have performed most of these activities, Pew found. In all, 88 percent of the cell phone owners ages 18-29 had performed one of these activities in the past 30 days, compared with 76 percent of the cell owners ages 30-49, 57 percent of the cell owners ages 50-64, and 46 percent of the cell owners age 65 and older.
Pew's data was based on a national survey of 2,254 adults, including 1,954 cell phone owners.
Nielsen also found that slightly more women now own smartphones, or 50.9 percent, versus 50.1 percent for men. Those who described themselves as white were the least likely to have bought a smartphone, however, with just 44.7 percent owning one. Just over 67 percent of Asians or Pacific Islanders, according to Nielsen, own a smartphone.
Of those smartphone users, nearly half chose a phone with an Android operating system, Nielsen said, or 48.5 percent. About 38.5 percent chose iPhones, with RIM's share at just 11.6 percent. The combined share of Windows Mobile (4.1 percent) and Windows Phone (1.7 percent) totaled just under 5 percent.
A recent report from InMobi gives the U.S. smartphone edge to Apple, while a recent report from comScore claims that over half of all U.S. smartphones run Android.
Editor's Note: The graphic, supplied by Nielsen, tracks smartphones versus feature phones through February. The company provided March data separately.For more from Mark, follow him on Twitter @MarkHachman.
