Android: 48.5% of the U...

According to Nielsen, Android OS had nearly half of the U.S. smartphone OS market in the first quarter of 2012. Google Android OS claimed 48.5 percent of smartphone owners in the first quarter, followed by Apple iOS with 32.0 percent and RIM BlackBerry with 11.6...

Nielsen: Smartphones Us...

Nielsen today became the latest analyst house to call it for smartphones outnumbering more basic devices in the U.S. The company says that in March 2012 smartphones were in use by 50.4 percent of consumers in the country, with Android continuing its domination in the space, accounting for 48.5 percent of all smartphone handsets. Apple is not a very close second, at 32 percent, but through that percentage it has remained the single-biggest smartphone handset brand. The 50.4 percentage of smartphones represents growth of about three percent since December 2011, when 47.8 percent of mobile consumers were using smartphones. That seems to suggest that while smartphone penetration continues to grow, the numbers seem to be slowing down a bit in the U.S. Nielsen also broke out some numbers on how different ethnic groups are using smartphones. Asian Americans, it notes, have the highest usage, at 67.3 percent using a smartphone as their primary mobile handset. Hispanics were in second place with 57.3 percent of the group using smartphones, with African Americans closely following with 54.4 percent. Whites had the lowest penetration of all, with 44.7 percent. Nielsen doesn’t really give an explanation for why these percentages play out as they do — but one guess for the lower number among whites is that perhaps they were some of the earlier adopters with previous generations of mobile handsets and so  are therefore slower to convert to the newer devices. Another interesting point is that apparently women are edging out men a bit when it comes to smartphone usage in the U.S. 50.9 percent of females had smartphones, while among men it was 50.1 percent. Unsurprisingly, younger users are the most smartphone-savvy, with two out of three 25-34 year-olds using more advanced mobile handsets.

Report: 69% Of Tablet O...

Just watching TV without also using a tablet or smartphone at the same time seems to be on its way out. Earlier this month, Nielsen launched the first part of its report on primetime TV viewers in the U.S. and today, the analytics company is taking a deeper dive into the demographics of those who simultaneously watch TV and use their tablets. According to Nielsen, 45% of tablet owners watch TV and use their tablet together at least once a day. A whopping 69% say they do so at least several times a week and only 12% say they never do this. There are some interesting differences between how men and women use their tablets in front of their TV. Women, says Nielsen, are more likely to look up information related to an ad they see on TV than men, while men are more likely to look up general information related to a TV program they are watching than women. Men, on average, are also far more likely to check sport scores on their tablets than women (44% vs. 24%). Unsurprisingly, younger tablet users are more likely to use their tablet in form of the TV than older ones. The only activity where older users tend to use their tablets more is checking email. Overall, checking email is also the most popular activity for tablet owners while watching TV (61%), followed by visiting social networking sites (47%) and looking up information about TV programs. Here are a few other findings from Nielsen’s report : Teens used a game console for eight minutes a night, on average, during primetime – more than twice as much as the general Females spend 61.2% of their timeshifted viewing during primetime watching Dramas. Online adults aged 25-54 are 23% more likely than the average U.S. Internet user to follow a brand via social networking and 29% more likely to purchase a product online that was featured on TV. [Image credit: Flickr user dan taylor ]

Nielsen Finds U.S. Hisp...

A new report from Nielsen this morning delves into the mobile and social behavior of U.S. Hispanic consumers, finding they’re highly engaged in their usage of smartphones, online video, social networking and other types of entertainment. According to the study, Hispanics outpace all over ethnic groups in mobile downloads of music and photos, and are more likely to watch video online and on the their mobile phones than others. Specifically, Nielsen says that Hispanic video viewers are 68% more likely than non-Hispanic White viewers to watch video on the Internet, and 20% more likely to watch video on their mobile phone. They’re also heavy phone users in general, sending and receiving some 941 SMS text messages per month – more than any other ethnic group. And they make 13 calls per day on their mobiles, which is 40% more than the average U.S. consumer. The group is also increasing its access to social networking services and blogs. In February, visits were up 14% to sites like Facebook and WordPress.com, for example. In February, 16.7 million unique U.S. Hispanics visitors headed over to Facebook, which is up 8% year-over-year. Visits to Blogger (+10% YOY), Twitter (+32% YOY), LinkedIn (+52% YOY), WordPress (+27% YOY), and Tumblr (+85% YOY) were up, as well. (See above chart). They often have a blog of their own, too – Hispanics are 17% more likely than the average consumer to build or update a personal blog, Nielsen found. Plus, Hispanics are 25% more likely to follow a brand, 18% more likely to follow a celebrity, 21% more likely to post links, articles, videos and website, and 7% more likely to have one or more social networking profiles. Perhaps the most interesting part to all this data, though, is the part that hints at the “why.” Hispanics are actually less likely to have Internet access at home than the average U.S. consumer (62% and 76%, respectively). Although this is increasing – home broadband use is up by 14% over the past year, which is higher than the 6% growth rate of the general market. So that can account for some of the activity. However, mobile is a key factor here. Says Nielsen, “mobile presents a significant avenue of opportunity for marketers looking to reach Hispanic consumers,” and the firm also notes that the group has “amassed significant buying power, despite perceptions to the contrary.” Marketers, though, aren’t the only ones who could successfully target this group, leveraging mobile to do so. If you’re building a mobile app or service – especially a social or entertainment-focused service – you would be lucky to have a group that’s as engaged as this one is to tap into.

Aol Adopts Nielsen Rati...

The online world wakes up each day and continues its quest for more accurate and trustworthy ways to measure success of online ads. It makes sense since the pitch of the online world is that everything is so measurable. We preach about it every day then we wonder why people are disappointed in the types of metrics we come up with especially around the effectiveness of advertising. When it comes to video ads this is an even more exasperating exercise. The traditional methods of measuring and defining audience in the video space has been shaped by the way TV has been packaged and sold for years and years. The godfather of audience measurement, Nielsen, has become the go to, the de facto, measurement tool. Well, the folks at Nilesen have convinced Aol that they have also built a better mousetrap for the online space as well. AdWeek reports Is Nielsen’s online measurement service ready for prime time? AOL thinks so—and is guaranteeing against Nielsen’s new Online Campaign Ratings. While Nielsen’s gross ratings points are used as currency ­by the entire television industry, its online GRPs are generated in a very different way and then parsed so that they are, in the words of Nielsen’s Steve Hasker, “exactly comparable to TV.” That’s a claim that will be tested in coming months, as Nielsen and AOL push the new model to advertisers still casting about for a convincing measurement metric. In a sense, the online world owes this to advertisers. It’s funny to watch people get completely up in arms when someone implies that the online space is not producing results. The cry is ” How can you say that?! That means you are not doing it right!” Well, in many cases I respectfully disagree. Sure you can measure traffic and clicks but until the point comes where we can more precisely measure just what (or combination of whats) caused a purchase, marketers and advertisers should remain skeptical. It’s kind of ironic to watch the online space consider the adoption of a more traditional medium but it only makes sense to put some forms of measuring audience in terms that marketers can understand. The online space wants to always make everything new but that can often confuse a situation. Having an interim type of measurement that eases the transition for marketers from old to new is a better way to go albeit a much less cool one. So is this type of measurement one to be completely trusted today? Well, let’s just take a step back The tinkering will likely continue for agencies. A rep for GroupM, which is working with Nielsen on this project and another focused on multiscreen measurement, said, “There is still some work to be done before we adopt this as a standard for video buying.” So we’re not there yet. That’s fine. We are working to get there. If we take the small steps to get there in a better way rather than leapfrogging everything to THINK we are getting there now only to have to backpedal and further damage the online space’s credibility, we will be better off. From what I have observed of the online community, however, patience is not one of its virtues at all.