Nearly one-in-four mobile users is now toting around a smartphone, according to the latest finding from Nielsen.
But activities like streaming audio, ringtone downloads, and full-track downloads lag far behind a range of other smartphone activities.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, more functional activities like email, mapping, text messaging, and mobile internet surfing are most demanded among smartphone consumers. But other less-obvious categories like picture downloading, IMing, and gaming beat out music activities, though high-ranking ‘app downloads’ certainly encompass music-specialized services.
And the war among smartphone makers? On a quarter-to-quarter basis, Nielsen’s Q1 stats showed a slight, 2 percent gain for the iPhone (to 28 percent), and a concomitant 2 percent drop for Blackberry to 35 percent. Android gained 2 percent to reach 9 percent overall penetration, while Windows Mobile slipped 2 percent to 19 percent overall.