Nearly half (46%) of American adults are smartphone owners as of February 2012, an increase of 11 percentage points over the 35% of Americans who owned a smartphone last May., according to Pew Internet (http://pewinternet.org/), a project of the Pew Research Center.

Forty-five percent of of cell owners say that their phone is a smartphone, up from 33% in May 2011; 49% of cell owners say that their phone operates on a smartphone platform common to the US market, up from 39% in May 2011

Since 88% of US adults are now cell phone owners, that means that a total of 46% of all American adults are smartphone users. Two in five adults (41%) own a cell phone that is not a smartphone, meaning that smartphone owners are now more prevalent within the overall population than owners of more basic mobile phones.

Pew Internet also notes that:

° Twenty percent of cell owners now describe their phone as an Android device, up from 15% in May 2011.

° Nineteen percent of cell owners now describe their phone as an iPhone, up from 10% in May 2011.

° Six percent of cell owners now describe the phone as a Blackberry, down from 10% in May 2011.