iPhone 4S launch Impact was 'enormous,' says Nielsen

Posted by newbie Wednesday, January 18, 2012 0 comments

Between October and Christmas, Apple's U.S. sales nearly caught up to Android's

Click to enlarge. Source: Nielsen

Three findings stand out in Nielsen'sDecember survey of the U.S. mobile phone market, released Wednesday:

Among recent smartphone buyers, 44.5% of those surveyed in December bought an Apple (AAPL) iPhone, up from 25.1% in October
57% of new iPhone buyers said they chose the iPhone 4S over the less expensive iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS
Android's lead among recent buyers nearly evaporated in the space of two months; in the December survey, 46.9% said they purchased a phone running Google's (GOOG) operating system, down from 61.6% before the iPhone 4S' Oct. 14 launch. Among all smartphone owners, Android still leads iPhone 43.6% to 30%.

Note that Nielsen has mixed and matched its time frames and offered no demographic color, not even the number of households surveyed. But the fever chart (above) it released Wednesday matches the right-hand side of the one (below) that the NPD Group sent out nine days earlier. See NPD: iPhone surged, Android slipped in Oct. and Nov.