The smartphone market has seen explosive growth in recent years, and the growth looks ominous. Recent surveys show that the current feature phone owners are rapidly switching to smartphones, while non-cell phone owners are jumping directly to smartphones with their first cell phone purchase.

In February 2011, comScore reported that US smartphone usage had grown by an astounding 60% in the previous 12 months. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the worldwide smartphone market is expected to grow by 49.2% in 2011. According to a May 2011 survey, 89% of US online consumers age 15+ own a cell phone (41% own a smartphone).

Although Android is a relative newcomer, its popularity eclipses even the iPhone. Overall, 33% of US smartphone owners have an Android phone, followed by iPhone at  25%. what helps its case is that many Android models are offered free with a long-term service contract, while iPhones are not. While BlackBerry pioneered the popularity of smartphones, the industry landscape is changing rapidly with a new challenge in Windows Phone.

Smartphone Usage and Activities

According to a survey from Prosper Mobile Insights, some 52.9% of smartphone owners say they use all the functions of their smartphone. That’s an astounding number, and a motivation for the platform makers and app developers. 16.7% use their smartphones exclusively for calling, text messaging, and email.

Not surprisingly, calling is actually the most common smartphone use. 31% of consumers say they use their smartphones to make calls constantly throughout the day. Interestingly, people who text tend to do so quite frequently. 38% of consumers surveyed use their smartphone to text constantly throughout the day, and 67% say they text at least several times. Email is the third most common among smartphone activities and more than half of consumers (53%) use their smartphone to check email at least several times per day. Web browsing on-the-go is also a common activity among smartphone owners. 18% of smartphone owners use their smartphones to browse the Internet constantly throughout the day and 58% do so at least once per day.

Source: ExactTarget