According to the latest figures from Nielsen, when it comes to the continuing battle between Android and the iPhone, Android is catching the iPhone in the market share stakes as Android now sits just nine percentage points behind Apple’s smartphone.

According to an article over on Mashable by Jolie O’Dell, Android is the fastest growing platform overall in the US market share with Apple’s iOS dropping slightly while BlackBerry still commands the top OS slot with roughly 30 percent market share.

Figures from Nielsen also show that new smartphone purchaser preferred the Android platform last month, and that for the first time ever in the 1st half of 2010, Android handsets outsold iPhone handsets although iOS still leads with 28 percent and Android has 19 percent of the OS market.

Apparently the figures also show that the Android platform is more preferred by the under 35’s and the older generation, while the iPhone grabs also grabs an age range below 44, BlackBerry however seems to be preferred by the over 45 crowd.

So maybe given time Android will draw level with the iPhone or possible overtake iOS and BlackBerry could start to drop below the iPhone and Android over the coming quarters, what are our reader’s views?