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Nielsen: again more smartphones than feature phones in Q3, Android and iOS keep on mauling the competition

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By Daniel Petrov

Published: Dec 21, 2012, 2:07 AM

Nielsen: again more smartphones than feature phones in Q3, Android and iOS keep on mauling the competition

Drum roll, please! Nielsen released its yearly cell phone industry stats to remind us that for the first time in history the smartphone crowd outnumbered the feature phone users in 2012, and the incident accelerated in Q3 with 56% of subscribers now owning a smartphone.

Android and iOS continued to dominate the sales, with 52% of total units sold powered by one tiny green robot, and 35% going to Apple in Q3. Windows Phone didn't budge at 2%, but it's not overly surprising, considering that WP8 wasn't launched at the time, and the Lumia 920 and HTC 8X weren't sold yet.

As for apps, the most used ones by said army of green robot aficionados are the following:

Top Android Apps of 2012
Rank	Apps	Avg Unique Users	YTD Change %
1	Google Search	44,386,000	54%
2	Gmail	44,516,000	45%
3	Facebook	42,379,000	48%
4	Google Maps	41,976,000	41%
5	YouTube	32,223,000	70%
6	Pandora Radio	11,600,000	55%
7	Twitter	10,674,000	122%
8	Adobe Reader	10,354,000	64%
9	Advanced Task Killer	9,569,000	-11%
10	The Weather Channel	8,983,000	59%
Source: Nielsen, Data from January – October 2012 (Android only). Ranked on average monthly unique users. Read as: During 2012 44 million Android smartphone owners used the Google Search app on average each month, growing their unique users 54% between January and October 2012.

And here is the iPhone top 10 list:

Top 10 iPhone Apps of 2012
Rank	Apps	Avg Unique Users	YTD Change %
1	Maps	32,365,000	23%
2	Facebook	28,585,000	51%
3	YouTube	22,626,000	-4%
4	Stocks	21,080,000	51%
5	Weather	20,531,000	41%
6	Facebook Messenger	10,458,000	544%
7	The Weather Channel	10,446,000	54%
8	Twitter	9,748,000	47%
9	Pandora Radio	9,563,000	47%
10	Instagram	6,910,000	197%
Source: Nielsen, Data from January – October 2012 (iOS only). Ranked on average monthly unique users. Read as: During 2012 28 million iPhone owners used the Facebook app on average each month, growing their unique users 51% between January and October 2012.

source: Nielsen

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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena from 2010 to 2025, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.