Pew: Smartphone Ownership Crosses Symbolic 50 Percent Threshold In US

With several qualifications and caveats, The Pew Internet Project released some new survey data (n=2,253) this morning that indicates 53 percent of US mobile phone owners now have smartphones. This is higher than the most recent Nielsen number (48 percent) and quite a bit higher than the last-published comScore figure (42 percent).

Pew says that some of its survey respondents reported having a “smartphone” while some reported that their phones run on a smartphone OS:

• 20% of cell owners now describe their phone as an Android device, up from 15% in May 2011
• 19% of cell owners now describe their phone as an iPhone, up from 10% in May 2011
• 6% of cell owners now describe the phone as a Blackberry, down from 10% in May 2011
• The proportion of cell owners describing their phone as a Windows (2%) or Palm (1%) device is unchanged since the last time we asked this question in May 2011

Totaling up the figures in the above list we get 48 percent smartphone OS penetration. Pew said, however, that piecing together the various responses indicates that 53 percent of survey respondents have smartphones.

Perhaps the most significant finding is that every major demographic group “experienced a notable uptick in smartphone penetration over the last year.” Pew added that among several groups (i.e., college graduates, 18-35 year olds and $75,000+ earners) smartphone ownership has crossed 60 percent.