Nielsen: Android is gaining market share but not at the expense of Apple

In a new study from Nielsen for the month of August, Android is continuing to grow reaching 43% of all smartphone owners, up from 40% in July. This in contrast to Apple’s 28% share, which according to Nielsen, has been static since June.

It’s important to note, however, that Android’s increase was largely due to the decline of the “other” category, which fell from 13% to 11% thanks to poor performance from Microsoft and Palm. RIM also lost share falling 1 percentage point to 18%, which contributed to Android rise as well. Of course this also the first summer where Android wasn’t met with a new iPhone to compete for new smartphone acquirers.

The report is quick to note that the introduction of a new iPhone next month could easily sway the numbers in Apple’s favor, at the very least for recent acquirers, which the survey put Apple at 28% in comparison to an impressive 56% for Android during the month of August.

Cross-posted on 9to5Mac.com