How Smartphone Preferences Differ By Race

As smartphone platforms battle each other for dominance, a new study may provide some insight into which groups of people are buying different phones.

Recent data released by Nielsen shows that at least among Asians (which includes Pacific Islanders) and African-Americans, certain platforms reign supreme. Thirty-six percent of Asians with smartphones have iPhones, while 31 percent of African-Americans with smartphones go for a BlackBerry.

Generally, according to Nielsen's breakdowns and categories, Asians, Hispanics and African-Americans are purchasing smartphones at higher rates than "Whites"--45 percent of Asians and Hispanics and 33 percent of African-Americans are smartphone users, while only 27 percent of Whites are.

While 60 percent of Asians, 56 percent of Hispanics and 44 percent of African-Americans purchasing phones in the past six months bought smartphones, only 42 percent of caucasian users did the same.

Check out the graph below (via Nielsen). See the full report here.

Comments

[Mackie Blanton]

09:57 AM on 02/21/2011

I've no hard evidence for my hunch; so my hunch may be incorrect. However, I suspect that there may have been an increase in purchases of Blackberry models by Blacks during the Presidential campaign, and certainly immediately after, and some time after, Obama became President. I mention this because of the concern among Obama's staffs that he needed to relinquish his Blackberry once he was in the White House. But The Dude refused. There were questions of security about a President constantly addicted to his Blackberry. Nonetheless, The Man refused to give it up. He stood his ground and his self-confessed addiction to his blackberry soon became moot.

Of course, my hunch will only make sense if there was a statistical rise in Blackberry purchases by Blacks during the campaign and afterwards.

Another more compelling reason, on the other hand, for the high number of Blackberry purchases among Blacks may be that the Blackberry line across a range of prices has more models available than the iPhone does.

[socialtalker]

05:21 AM on 02/10/2011

i have enjoyed folks tripping out over this totally benign report on who buys what. i am black and i have a 30 dollar tracfone myself that doesnt always work thru out the whole month because i refuse to pay more than 10 dollars a month for service. however, that doesnt mean i am going to attack this report as "nonsense" because i dont have a smartphone. there is nothing wrong with following spending habits by gender, geographic location, marital status, race or a dozen or more other demographics. everyone needs to calm down.

[Lugubert]

02:02 PM on 02/09/2011

I think that any attempt to get info on any person's "race" or ethnicity or religion, including Government surveys, is illegal in my country, so more or less by definition the article statistics aren't applicable here. And I get rather irritated when people say that I, the rather typical fairly tall Swede of brownish hair, mixed colour eyes, am a "Caucasian". Until my generation, no relative of mine was ever closer to the Caucasus than some 1500 miles.

[Hypocrites are Watching]

11:19 AM on 02/09/2011

big brother is watching

[Gogetter]

07:53 AM on 02/09/2011

Judging by the comments, it's obvious (and laughable) that this (non) story seems to threaten some of you. Although I can't imagine why.

"It's skewed!"
"Black people only by blackberrys because their cheap."
"OMG!!! This article seems to imply that some minority is ahead of me on the tech curve. That notion must not be allowed to stand!!"

Get a grip.

[etennial 2000]

06:48 PM on 02/09/2011

The average black berry Cost $500.00 +/-, get your facts right.

[Gogetter]

08:17 AM on 02/10/2011

I was only repeating what's been expressed in the comments, genius.

[jyokley]

05:04 PM on 02/08/2011

Those charts look pretty even huh? Not much of a story here.

[cambio]

11:33 AM on 02/08/2011

I don't really see much of a story here, other than the fact that Asians/Pacific Islanders have the good sense to stay away from BlackBerry.

[Hank007]

09:24 AM on 02/08/2011

I'm old school, and rock an LG Chocolate, not even a smart phone. And please don't call me ghetto, just because I like red kool-aid.

[jyokley]

05:05 PM on 02/08/2011

ghetto =)

[NoireLion]

08:30 AM on 02/08/2011

Blk Male 45 With Android's Lord of Droids (HTC Evo 4g) in my pocket
Rooted and rommed!!!! d'accord

[Douglas Campbell]

01:13 PM on 02/08/2011

est-ce que c'est un smartphone dans votre poche ou excite pour me voir ?

[themainpoint]

04:08 PM on 02/08/2011

english translation? I can't figure it out...my french is rusty...something about why smart phones don't excite you more?

[Douglas Campbell]

04:14 PM on 02/08/2011

oh, because you said "d'accord" I said " Is that a smartphone in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

[Iceman11]

07:16 AM on 02/08/2011

These differences are more about income than race. You need to try to separate the two.

[Bex DuSunshine]

07:09 AM on 02/08/2011

I think it's cool that it's pretty much even.
At least we're not racist when it comes to our phone choices.

(if only people would stop referring to non smart phones as ghetto phones...)

[Johnson Schwanz]

06:43 AM on 02/08/2011

It seems odd to me that "whites" are in quotes, while black people are constantly referred to as "African-Americans." That's not a comment on this article, but more on the country as a whole.

Teresa Heinz Kerry is African-American. I'm black.

For the record: I'm a black male with a Palm Pre. *ducks*

[JustJR]

08:42 AM on 02/08/2011

Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira Heinz Kerry is of Portuguese descent and (I presume still) a citizen of Mozambique - a former Portuguese colony in Africa. In another former Portuguese colony, Angola, the Portuguese besieged Kabasa in early 1619 and marched African men, women and children some 150 miles to Luanda to be exported as slaves. 350 were piled onto the San Juan Bautista which departed for Mexico in May 1619. The Bautista would be captured while en route by the White Lion and the Treasurer, two corsairs that would later appear in Chesapeake Bay in August of the same year with slaves to trade - men, women and children now twice stolen and destined to become the first African-Americans.

You have every right to call yourself whatever you want but please don’t insult African-Americans and their history in the process. As for me. I am proudly African-American, a descendant of the slaves in the USA, now living in Africa and doing my thing on my iPhone.

[Johnson Schwanz]

07:31 PM on 02/08/2011

I'm sorry...I don't mean to insult those who are from Africa and move to America under any circumstances. However, I'm a Black man from North Carolina. Am I descendant of slaves? Absolutely. But aren't folks who are called "white" also descendant of Europeans?

My point was never to denigrate anyone; rather, I wanted to point out the contradictory nature of majority/minority politicization and categorization. Some white people emigrated from Europe; however, they're not called European Americans. Some black people were brought to the US as slaves; however, ALL of us are called African Americans. I find that to be a blatant double-standard.

Moreover, the lines are continually blurred when you bring in the "modern" African immigrants into the picture. Some of my buddies from B-school 2nd generation Kenyans and are now citizens; however, we're both called African Americans.

I hope my point is more clear.

[hulagirrrl]

05:20 AM on 02/08/2011

How did Nielson get all of that data?

[alwaysthinkin]

08:37 AM on 02/09/2011

Excellent point. I do not remember checking a race box when I got my phone.

[The Dude67]

05:19 AM on 02/08/2011

"Whites"?  I guess that's just a catch all for those of us with no "heritage".

[proudloudlib]

03:57 PM on 02/08/2011

"Euro Americans"?

[Cougar29]

04:41 AM on 02/08/2011

How about a race/IQ study? We haven't had a Bell Curve in a while..

[socialtalker]

05:06 AM on 02/08/2011

what, you dont know how to google information?