A new poll out of Nielsen’s shows that late adopters of the smartphone platform could have a major impact on market share in the US. It seems just as we see in the political world where registered Independents, can determine the ebb and flow of party politics, a large group of undecided consumers will be the major target smartphone manufacturers will be gunning for. As you can see in the graph below the undecided consumer makes up a large swath of the late majority  and late adopters demographic. These are the users polled that make up the most of the remaining 60% of cell market still using feature phones.
In truth most of these users seem to have already chosen a side. Even though Android looks to be on top in these two demographics now, one has to wonder if these same users were aware of the iPhone being added to the lineup for all major US carriers during the poll. The lead shown is not so large and a little extra info could put Apple and Google on just about even ground with this demographic.
I am not sure of the total number of users polled here, but it would look as though even with a 50/50 split Androids perception in the eye’s of the public may not be as bad as I had believed when writing my earlier article. Time will tell, but if I have to concede my inaccuracy in perception, I will happily do so.
An interesting note is that Microsoft’s WM7 platform does not seem to be able to make much headway in consumer opinion at present. However, I think next years release of Windows 8 and its supposed bottom up integration of the mobile platform, may have a good chance of  producing some very different numbers late next year. Of course even deeper lines in the sand will have been drawn by that time.
Also interesting,  it looks like the “Innovators” are the only ones that seem a little excited by RIM’s forthcoming QNX phones.
Via Nielsen
