Apple's iOS passes RIM BlackBerry as leading smartphone OS in the U.S.

RIM's BlackBerry OS has ruled the US smartphone market for quite some time, but we have seen the writing on the wall as Apple's iOS and Android have been smoking up the sales charts. According to Nielsen stats Apple's iOS is now the leading smartphone OS in the US with 27.9% compared to RIM BlackBerry at 27.4%. Android is right there too with 22.7% so I imagine they will shortly pass up RIM as well.

Microsoft's Windows Mobile is still hanging in at 14.0% and this is with the older OS. Now that Windows Phone 7 is out and available on a couple of carriers it will be interesting to see how their market share changes. Palm is way down at 1.3% and Symbian at 3.4% so they really have no impact in the US at this time. The encouraging news for everyone is that the smartphone market share is at 29.7% compared to the feature phone marke at 70.3% so there is room for growth. Keep in mind though that we will NEVER see smartphones reaching 100% and I imagine growth of smartphones may get to a maximum of something like 50%, if even that high. I think there is room for growth, but I am not sold on how much growth there is given that there are plenty of smartphones available now so you would think people who want one would have purchased one. Where do you think the limit is for smartphone ownership?

The Nielsen post contains several more charts about future purchase decisions and desired operating systems so make sure to check it out. Based on the feedback in their report, a Verizon iPhone looks like it would do very well.