Survey: Android sees big gain among prospective smartphone purchasers

By Phil Nickinson
last updated

One of our favorite hobbies these days is to collect statistical data about Android (we also collect spores, mold and fungus), and here's an interesting specimen from ChangeWave.

A survey of 4,068 people conducted Dec. 9-14 found that 21 percent of those planning to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days would prefer Android. That's 15 percentage points higher than in September -- the largest gain among the major smartphone operating systems. (RIM was the other winner, increasing 1 percentage point over September's survey.)

Other interesting facts:

  • 13 percent said they'd prefer a Motorola Android phone, compared to 9 percent for an HTC phone. (In September, it was 5 percent for HTC versus 1 percent for Motorola. (Of course, that was before the Droid line was launched on Verizon.)
  • Apple, RIM and Palm all saw declines in likely future purchases.
  • Android was ranked second (72 percent) among customers who said there were "very satisfied" with their current cell phone. (iPhone 77 percent; BlackBerry 41 percent; Palm OS/webOS 33 percent; Windows Mobile 25 percent)

Check out the whole breakdown from ChangeWave.

Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson
2 Comments
  • I love my iPhone, but the Droid is SO tempting .... just for Verizon. If Verizon had an iPhone, it'd be no contest.
  • Take these with a grain of salt. So much has to do with brand awareness more than anything else. For example, I can't imagine that comparing device to device or platform to platform would see WebOS as 1/6th as good as a RIM device or Motorola as a good hardware choice. This basically has to do with advertising. Verizon and to a lesser extent T-Mo and HTC have been pushing Android phones cutting into the advertising juggernaut that is the iPhone. Likewise Blackberry ads are everywhere and the name is well known whereas WebOS or Palm is still just those stupid Palm Pre ads to most people or maybe just seen as an anachronism. It would be much nicer if people were able to line up devices side by side along with lists comparing specs. I would imagine that with a removal of branding and advertising folks would find devices much more suited to them this way.