iPhone Delay Won't Quell Apple Ardor

iPhone Delay Won't Quell Apple Ardor

CUPERTINO, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Apple's(APPL) new iPhone may have been a no show at the company's Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) last month, but investors can rest easy, says a new report. All signs suggest that customers are flocking to buy the company's current phones.

Figures released by Nielsen last week reveal that the percentage of U.S smartphone buyers choosing the Apple iPhone jumped from 10% in March to 17% in May, likely boosted by the launch of the Verizon(VZ) iPhone.

"Apple is now driving smartphone growth," said Nielsen in a blog post, noting that take up of Google(GOOG) Android phones has flattened this year. Some 27% of smartphone buyers opted for an Android device in May, the same as in March.

After eschewing its traditional iPhone launch at WWDC, Apple's iPhone 5 is expected to make its debut in September, although the 4G LTE super iPhone is still another year away.

Apple nonetheless set a record for iPhone sales during its recent second quarter, selling a massive 18.6 million devices. That's up from 8.8 million in the prior year's quarter. Additionally, the iPhone maker is tipped for overseas growth, with IDC estimating that Apple holds just 5% of the global mobile phone market.

Android, however, is still very much in the game, according to Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates. "What [the Nielsen numbers] tell me is that the iPhone remains popular, but Android continues to maintain its market share," he said. "It's sort of flat, but for them it's not a bad thing because they will have a lot of new devices coming out."

Gold said he expects to see new phones based on Android's Gingerbread update, as well a newer version -- Ice Cream Sandwich -- which is expected later this year. "When you have an upgrade, there are always new phones," he said.

Nielsen's research notes that Android is still by far the most popular U.S. smartphone operating system, holding 38% market share. Apple's iOS holds 27% of the market, while sluggish Research In Motion's(RIMM) BlackBerry OS has 21%, it said.

Last week, Andy Rubin, Google's vice president of mobile, tweeted that the search giant is activating 500,000 new Android devices every day, a figure that's growing weekly by 4.4%.


The Street
07/05/11 - 09:05 AM EDT