It is getting harder and harder for Apple to maintain its seat on the smartphone pedestal as Android smartphones get increasingly mature and appealing.
Although the release of the iPhone 4 in June temporarily slowed demand for Android devices, the pattern soon reversed again.
According to research from ChangeWave, more than a third of consumers about to buy new phones would choose Android models - a sixfold increase on the same time last year.
The regular survey questions 4,000 consumers in the US. In September, it found that, of those people planning to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days, 37% said they would choose Android - up from 30% in the March and June surveys, and 600% on a year earlier.
By contrast, demand for the iPhone fell from 50% in June to 38% in September 2010, though the drop mainly reflected a surge immediately after the launch of the iPhone 4.
BlackBerry OS was on the wishlist of 6% of the respondents, up a little from 5% in June in the wake of the launch of BlackBerry Torch.
But there is defection from the BlackBerry to Android, partly because of lower levels of customer satisfaction. According to the survey, 65% of Android users are “very satisfied”, compared to 31% of RIM users. Apple does even better, on 74%.
This article originally appeared in Rethink Wireless
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