Apple, Google, RIM in neck to neck race to expand smart-phone
05 Mar 2011
According to a Nielsen survey, Apple, Google, Research In Motion (RIM) are neck and neck in rapidly expanding smart phone market in the US.
While Apple and Google have their own individual operating systems to power their own smartphones, the rest are supported by Google's Android operating sytem (OS).
"When it comes to consumer market share by operating system, Android (29 per cent ) appears to be pulling ahead of RIM Blackberry (27 per cent) and Apple iOS (27 per cent)," Nielsen said in its survey.
However, according to the analysis RIM and Apple are winners compared to other device makers since they are the only ones creating and selling smart phones with their respective operating systems.
Meanwhile, Apple founder Steve Jobs received a standing ovation when he unveiled the iPad 2 earlier this week. The product is due to be shipped later in the month, possibly ahead of the PlayBook.
The survey says HTC comes next with 12 per cent of consumer smartphone owners having an HTC Android device and 7 per cent owning an HTC device running a Microsoft OS.
According to the survey, only 10 per cent of consumer smart phone owners had a Motorola Android device and 1 per cent owned a Motorola device running a Microsoft OS.