• eMarketer, Monday, December 28, 2009 2:05 PM

Awareness of the Android mobile operating system is rising, according to comScore, which found that 37% of U.S. mobile users had heard of Android in November. That was up from 22% as recently as August, likely due to the Verizon Droid ad campaign, according to eMarketer. Meanwhile, 17% of mobile users in the market for a new smartphone in the next three months planned to buy an Android phone, compared with 20% who would pick up an iPhone.

Separately, according to Compete, usage patterns for Android and iPhone owners appear to be quite similar, while they tend to differ from those of other smartphone users as well as from those of feature phone owners. Still, there is a notable gap in email usage, with Android users far behind iPhone owners, but mobile media consumption and browser and app usage track very closely. Compete also found similarities when it asked smartphone users how much time they spent with their phone's Web browser versus mobile applications. The majority of iPhone users, along with 44% of Android users, spent at least one-half of their time with applications rather than a browser, while only about one-fifth of other smartphone users said the same.

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