BlackBerry overtakes Apple in mobile OS wars

BOSTON, USA: BlackBerry OS overtook Apple's iOS for the first time in the US in November in terms of mobile internet usage according to web analytics company, StatCounter.

The company's research arm, StatCounter Global Stats finds that for the first time in the US BlackBerry OS at 34.3 per cent overtook Apple's iOS which recorded 33 per cent in November.

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Google's Android is rapidly gaining and has almost tripled internet market share from 8.2 per cent last November to 23.8 per cent this year. Apple's iOS has fallen from 51.9 per cent to 33 per cent 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.

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He added that, if current trends continue, BlackBerry and Android combined are on course to become twice the size of iOS as regards mobile internet usage in the next year.

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.

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He added, "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."

BlackBerry's US lead is not replicated in terms of worldwide share according to the StatCounter data. Globally Symbian OS leads with 31.9 per cent followed by iOS (21.9 per cent), BlackBerry OS (19.3 per cent) and Android (11.6 per cent).

StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected by StatCounter on a sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month collected from across the StatCounter network of more than three million websites.