While it seems all the people you see are using the Apple iPhone, statistics from the market research firm, Nielsen, show that those purchasing new smartphones are buying Android-based mobile phones more often than the Apple iPhone.

Nielsen reported that during the last six months, 40.0 percent of smartphone purchasers in the U.S. chose Android-powered mobile phones. The report when on to show that 26.9 percent of purchasers went with the Apple iPhone and 19.2 percent of the smartphone buyers got RIM’s Blackberry phones.

Since June 2010, new smartphone customers have been choosing more Android-based mobile phones than Apple iPhones, according to Nielsen’s charts. The other two companies have followed about the same levels as well since then. The reason is due to the fact that there is a strong demand for all kinds of smartphones in general. This has lead to the mobile cellular phone market expanding during this timeframe.

Both the demand by consumers and this expansion have caused both Google’s Android and iOS to benefit from more people desiring to purchase smartphones. Nielsen reported that 45 percent of the people who have recently bought a smartphone chose it instead of a feature phone in November. This is a trend they predict will continue all through 2011.

RIM and its Blackberry mobile phones aren’t doing as well with getting a share of all the new smartphone purchasers. In June of 2010, RIM was tops with 35 percent of the new mobile phone purchasers, but that dropped to only 25 percent in July 2010. In November 2010, it dropped even further to 19.2 percent of new purchasers choosing the RIM’s Blackberry smartphone.

Nielsen’s report looks similar when you look at the overall mobile market share for the three companies. Apple is keeping a small lead over Android with 28.6 percent of the market next to Android’s 25.8 percent. In June, their numbers were 27.9 percent and 15 percent respectively. RIM, however, keeps losing ground in the mobile cellular phone market share. In June they were at 33.9 percent and have now fallen to 26.1 percent.

We aren’t surprised by these figures as the mobile ad firm AdMob has reported for months that Android-powered phones are inching towards Apple iPhone models. In August it was reported that Android-based smartphones were selling even faster than Apple’s iPhones.

With the progress that Android is making, Nielsen analysts are predicting that the race between Apple and Google’s Android may be much too close to call.