Android hits 51.8% market share in U.S.

Android has a bigger U.S. market share than all other mobile operating systems combined, according to a new report by Nielsen.

Nielsen’s research shows that 51.8% of smart phone owners in the U.S. use an Android handset. Apple’s iOS has a 34.3% market share, and the rest is divided between RIM’s BlackBerry (8.1%) and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7 platforms (4.3%).

Symbian and Palm OS both have less than one percent market share: 0.9% and 0.6%, respectively.
This is in line with a recent report, which claimed Android topped 50% market share in February 2012.

Nielsen’s numbers from recent smart phone acquirers (last three months) paint an even rosier picture for Android and iOS, with their respective market shares jumping to 54.6% and 36.3%, at the expense of everyone else.

Digging a little bit deeper into those numbers reveals Apple’s dominance on the market, as it is by far the biggest manufacturer out there with its 34.3% share. Samsung is number two with a 17% share, followed by HTC, Motorola and RIM. It’s also interesting to note that overall, Nokia is bested by both Samsung and HTC even when it comes to Windows 7 handsets.

We’ll see how these numbers will change after two extremely important devices hit the market: Samsung’s Galaxy S III and Apple’s upcoming iPhone, probably due to be launched this fall.

Hungry? Apple adds ‘Food and Drink’ section to app store

Thanks to the growing popularity of food and drink-related apps, Apple is adding a dedicated section for the category to its App Store.

“Food & Drink” joins other app categories such as education, entertainment and finance as a part of an effort to help Apple device users find programs based on their area of interest.

The section lists the Food Network app as its top paid app, followed by Allrecipes.com, Fast Paeleo and Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Apps from companies such as Pizza Hut and Starbucks are also listed in the section.

Apple is no stranger to adding new categories to the App Store. In March, it added a Catalogs section for visually-rich shopping catalogs.