With the recent excitement over emerging mobile media, including the release of Verizon’s Droid phone based on Google’s Android mobile operating system, it seems like everyone will soon own a smartphone.  According to the Nielsen Company, a research firm, that might actually come true. A recent report predicts that about half of cell phone users, or 150 million people, will own a smartphone by 2011.

Nielsen also alludes to the fact that, due to the launch of Droid, a smartphone war may be brewing. The firm compared data and Web usage between iPhone and Android platforms, with results being about the same. Ninety-two percent of Android users access the Internet, compared to 88 percent of iPhone owners. Seventy-six percent of Android customers use applications, versus 74 percent on the iPhone. The introduction of a viable iPhone competitor will all but encourage mobile’s growth.