Study: African-Americans Likely Next Big Opportunity for Smartphone Makers

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The African-American market offers the smartphone industry its best opportunity for growth. That's one of the conclusions revealed in a recent analysis by The Nielsen Company of the cellular phone users.

As of the end of 2010, nearly one third (31%) of all mobile customers owned smartphones. These are cell phones with app-based, web-based operating systems, such as the Apple iPhone, Google's Android system and RIM's Blackberry. Research by Nielsen showed that ethnic consumers are purchasing the devices at a faster rate than the general population, and that 31 % of African-Americans are smartphone owners.

Where the immediate opportunity lies for the smartphone industry is in the fact that African-Americans have been switching their preference for particular brand of smartphone slower than other ethnic groups. Among African-American consumers, 31 percent are Blackberry owners, 27 percent own an Android phone, and 15 percent own iPhones.

Blackberry purchases have dropped the fastest among smartphone manufacturers, according to Nielsen, from 38 percent in October of 2009 to 20% in December 2010. As an ethnic group, African-Americans own Blackberry devices than any other smartphone, and therefore will represent the largest potential growth opportunity for iPhone and Android-based phones if the trend to switch phones continues.

This opportunity comes as cellular phone expenditure among black consumers is also growing. According the Target Market News' report, The Buying Power of Black America, African-Americans spent $9.4 billion on cellular phones and service in 2009, an increase of 30% from 2008.

Special to Trice Edney Wire from TargetMarketNews.com