Nielson has revealed its latest statistics on smartphone ownership in the US and there is some fascinating information contained in the report. 31% of all mobile consumers in the US owned a smartphone as of December last year. Ethnic and racial minorities also dominated ownership of smartphones with Asian/Pacific Islanders and Hispanics having 45% smartphone penetration, African-Americans also had higher numbers at 33% whilst White Americans were at a much lower 27%.

The smartphone war between RIM’s BlackBerry, Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android operating system was also at dead heat by the end of 2010. Apple was just ahead at 28% of the mobile operating system share but has been sitting steady at around that rate for a year. RIM’s BlackBerry OS market share continued diving and was at 27% and Google’s Android continued steaming upwards reaching it’s highest share of 27%.

However going forward Nielson sees Android clearly in the lead with most recent purchases being Android at 43% whilst Apple’s iPhone is at 26% and BlackBerry at 20%. Amongst ethnicities and races, the iPhone is the most heavily favoured operating system by Asian/Pacific Islanders at 36% whilst for African American’s it is the least favoured. For Hispanics and White’s iOS is favoured at 29% but BlackBerry and Android not far off at 25-27%.

[Via Nielson]