Gadget Census Apportions States by Smartphone Ownership

What state has the most iPhone users? If you've ever wanted to know, read on to see a new study about cell phone ownership across the United States from Retrevo. Their latest Gadget Census report focuses which states would "vote" for iPhones, BlackBerries, and Android phones, based on ownership and "gadgetoral votes."

The great state of California, home to Hollywood and the place Tony Bennett left his heart, casts its 83 votes for the iPhone. Meanwhile, New Jersey, the Garden State, home to Tony Soprano and Thomas Edison pledge their votes to Android. In this make believe world, electoral, or should we say "gadgetoral," votes are defined by how many smartphones of a particular type are represented in every state of the union. In fact, if the government felt it needed to apportion the nation by smartphone ownership, it could use the findings from Retrevo's 2010 Gadget Census that looked at what gadgets people own and how they use them, including data on how many smartphones are represented per capita in each state.

iPhone States

Whether you're an iPhone owner looking for a state with more iPhone owners so you have more in common with them or you're looking to avoid them so you have a better chance of getting a connection from AT&T, states like California and Massachusetts is where you'll find the most iPhones per capita. Florida would be unlikely to cause any controversy in a gadgetoral-based election as it sits firmly in iPhone camp.

Android States

The Android party hasn't been around as long as the iPhone party but nonetheless has done a good job of capturing the smartphone market in a number of states. Unfortunately, aside from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, most of the Android states like Hawaii and Montana are not the most populous states in the country so although Android wins in a lot of states, it doesn't garner a lot of gadgetoral votes.

BlackBerry States

With all the attention iPhones and Android phones get, it's easy to forget how popular BlackBerry phones are in America. You still can't beat them for messaging or not be impressed by their adoption in corporate America as the company phone. Maybe that's why states like New York, Texas and the Beltway states of Maryland and Virginia come out on top for BlackBerrys.

The Final Tally

When all the hanging chads are accounted for and votes have all been tabulated, the iPhone edges out the BlackBerry for gadgetoral votes 218 to 198. Android comes in third with 122 votes but grabs the most number of states with 21 compared to iPhone and BlackBerry who are tied at 15 states apiece.

*Keep in mind, gadgetoral votes take into account how the number of smartphones per capita, per state and might differ from the "popular vote" or total number of each smartphone in the country which you might find in some smartphone market reports.

About the Retrevo Gadget Census: Gadgetoral votes were calculated based on smartphone ownership per capita across the country. Each state was granted a 3 vote minimum consistent with electoral college. Phone states were created based on differences in per capita ownership between individual states and the national average.

The Retrevo Gadget Census was conducted online from March, 2010 through July, 2010 and received over 7,500 individual responses from Retrevo users distributed across gender, age, and location. Responses were weighted based on reported demographics to gain accurate estimations of gadget ownership and usage within and across demographics. All data is therefore reported as weighted data in which most responses have a confidence interval of +/- 4% at a 95% confidence level.

By Andrew Eisner, Director of Community and Content for Retrevo.com