One statistic which is great news for Apple

By Benjamin SnyderManaging Editor
Benjamin SnyderManaging Editor

Benjamin Snyder is Fortune's managing editor, leading operations for the newsroom.

Prior to rejoining Fortune, he was a managing editor at Business Insider and has worked as an editor for Bloomberg, LinkedIn and CNBC, covering leadership stories, sports business, careers and business news. He started his career as a breaking news reporter at Fortune in 2014.

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Man Using Smartphone and Digital Tablet
Photograph by Getty Images

A new Pew study has some potentially great news for Apple: 32% of adults in the U.S. don’t yet having smartphones.

“Fully 68% of adults now have a smartphone, nearly double the share that Pew Research Center measured in its first survey on smartphone ownership in mid-2011,” according to the research. “At that point, 35% of adults had smartphones.”

That could well prove an opportunity for Apple, which as of last year was determined to have a 42% share of the U.S. smartphone market, according to NPD Group.

Unsurprisingly, those aged 65+ are least likely to have smartphones (just 30%), according to the research, while those from ages 18 to 29 are most likely (86%).

But there’s bad news for one type of device: e-readers. In fact, the study found that its popularity has declined since just last year. “Some 19% of adults report owning an e-reader – a handheld device such as a Kindle or Nook primarily used for reading e-books,” according to Pew. “This is a sizable drop from early 2014, when 32% of adults owned this type of device.”

Interestingly, women (22%) are more likely than men (15%) to own such a device.

Check out the full study here.