Most Americans in their mid-20s to mid-30s own smartphones, according to Nielsen's third-quarter survey of mobile users.
The survey found that 62 percent of mobile phone users ages 25 to 34 own phones with a powerful operating system like Android.
The penetration rate for mobile phone users between the ages of 18 and 24 and 34 and 44 is a bit lower (54 percent).
As one might expect, older Americans have been slower to adopt the new gadgets: The penetration rate among those between the ages of 55 and 64 is only 30 percent, but that figure jumped 5 percent this quarter and was only 17 percent in the year-ago quarter.
Meanwhile, Nielsen found that Google's operating system, Android, holds 43 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, followed by Apple's iOS (28 percent), Research in Motion's BlackBerry (18 percent), Windows Mobile (7 percent) and other (4 percent).
RIM's numbers continue to slide, particularly in the U.S., while Apple is growing slightly, and a new rival – Windows Phone – slowly begins to make inroads.
Unlike Apple and RIM, whose OS is incorporated exclusively in their iPhone and BlackBerry devices, Android is an open platform meaning Google's software is incorporated by a variety of different phone manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung.
