Here’s a surprising data point — Online analytics provider StatCounter has come out with new data revealing that Blackberry’s OS has overtaken iOS as the number one mobile platform accessing the mobile Web in the US.
The company found that for the first time in the US, BlackBerry’s OS at 34.3% overtook Apple’s iOS which recorded 33% in November. Google’s Android OS is rapidly gaining as well, and has almost tripled mobile Web market share from 8.2% last November to 23.8% this year. Apple’s iOS has fallen from 51.9% to 33% over the same period.
“These figures suggest that developers should not be developing solely for the iPhone to the exclusion of BlackBerry and Android,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. He added that, if current trends continue, BlackBerry and Android combined are on course to become twice the size of iOS in regards to mobile Web usage in the next year. “This data demonstrates that there is a battle royal already going on in the smartphone market for the consumer and business internet user. You can never underestimate Microsoft but it looks to have its work cut out.”
Commenting on Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7, he said that it was not yet registering significantly in terms of Internet usage but would be interesting to observe over the next year. BlackBerry’s US lead is not replicated in terms of worldwide share according to the StatCounter data. Globally Symbian OS leads with 31.9% followed by iOS (21.9%), BlackBerry OS (19.3%) and Android (11.6%).
