Google's Android platform continued its steady climb toward nabbing half of the U.S. smartphone market, landing on 40 percent of devices in July and finding some fans among early adopters.
According to Thursday data from Nielsen, about 40 percent of mobile consumers in the U.S. now have smartphones and of those, 40 percent are Android-based devices, followed by 28 percent on Apple's iOS.
That's up slightly from the 39 percent Android had in June, while Apple's market share stayed the same.
Among those who want to buy a new smartphone in the next year, however, one-third said they wanted an Android while another one-third will opt for an iPhone. If you're talking to early adopters, though, 40 percent want an Android device and 32 percent are looking at an iOS-based device.
If you want to know who is going to tip the scales in the smartphone wars, however, it's those undecided buyers, Nielsen said.
"Among likely smartphone upgraders, it is the 'Late Adopters' who are most likely to say they are 'not sure' which operating system they'd like in their next smartphone," Nielsen said. "In politics as in smartphones, these 'undecideds' will be the ones device makers will be hoping to win over."
Globally, Android is much closer to the 50 percent mark, according to early August data from Canalys. Android ended the second quarter with 48 percent of the market, with Asia Pacific leading the charge. Of the 56 countries tracked by Canalys, Android topped 35 of them, with 51.9 million shipments.
Several weeks ago, Android producer Google surprised the mobile industry by announcing plans to acquire Motorola Mobility. Google insisted that Motorola will remain a separate company and that Android will continue to be open source. Other Android partners like HTC said they "welcomed" the deal, but analysts speculated they had no other choice given their current reliance on Android. How the deal will affect Android in the future remains to be seen, but for the breakdown, check out Google Acquires Motorola Mobility: What You Need to Know.
At least one person is not convinced Google made the right move. David Martin, founder and CEO of patent consulting firm M-Cam told Bloomberg that the patents Google bought with the Moto deal are "crap" because Motorola already sold off its valuable assets.
For more, see the best Android phones slideshow below.