Smartphone usage statistics are impressive! According to Nielsen Mobile Insights, smart phones will have reached the 50% penetration mark in the US mobile phone market by the end of February 2012, surpassing feature phones. This is up from 36% penetration in February of 2011, a 38% year-over-year increase.
Android smartphones continue to lead the overall US smartphone market. The breakdown among the top 3 mobile operating systems in February 2012 is as follows:
- Android: 48%
- iOS: 32%
- Blackberry: 12%
- Other (Windows mobile, etc): 8%
While Android smartphones and other devices are gaining ground in the consumer space, among healthcare providers the picture appears to be dramatically different. According to an analysis conducted by Bulletin Healthcare between June 1st 2010 and February 28th 2011 among 550,000 healthcare workers, of whom 400,000 were physicians, iPhone and iPad devices combined grabbed more than 90% of the market. Android devices were used by a mere 6% of health workers analyzed in this population, and other devices accounted for the rest. Mobile consumption of medical news climbed by 45% during this period, and iPad usage jumped from 8% to 14% while iPhone use fell from 86% to 79% over the same period.
Smartphone usage also differed greatly between different medical specialties, according to the Bulletin Healthcare analysis:
- Physician Assistants – 41%
- Emergency Room Physicians – 40%
- Cardiologists – 33%
- Urologists – 31%
- Nephrologists – 31%
- Dermatologists – 30%
- Gastroenterologists – 30%
- Psychiatrists – 28%
- Optometrists – 28%
- Radiologists – 24%
- Rheumatologists – 22%
- Endocrinologists – 21%
- Oncologists – 20%
- Clinical Pathologists – 16%