According to the latest figures, 31 percent of consumers who plan to get a new smartphone indicated Android was now their preferred OS.

The answer depends on whether you’re looking at operating systems or manufacturers. The battle for the hearts and minds of consumer smartphone owners continues to be a heated one according to data just released by The Nielsen Company.

Smartphone penetration is even higher among mobile users who are part of ethnic and racial minorities in the U.S. – namely Asian/Pacific Islanders (45%), Hispanics (45%) and African-Americans (33%), populations that also tend to skew younger.

How well do consumers understand 4G or its benefits? The Nielsen Company recently fielded a survey to gauge consumer awareness and perceptions of 4G as well as purchase intent.

According to November data from The Nielsen Company, the popularity of the Android OS among those who purchased a smartphone in the last six months (40%) makes it the leading OS among recent acquirers.

According to October 2010 data from The Nielsen Company, 29.7 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers now own smartphones, cellphones with full operating systems.

The growing popularity of smartphones like Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s Blackberry devices and a variety of Google Android-based models on the market, has accelerated the adoption rate.

According to the latest edition of The Nielsen Company’s Apps Playbook, the average number of apps that smartphone apps downloaders have on their phones is now 27, up from 22 in December 2009.

In its analysis of more than 60,000 mobile phone bills in the U.S., Nielsen details the most talkative (and most “textative”) Americans by gender, age, region and ethnicity.

In many developing markets, inexpensive and available mobile phones serve as a substitute pathway to the Internet. Rapid mobile phone adoption presents “reverse innovation” opportunities for clever marketers who leverage the trend.