ANDROID BREAKS YET ANOTHER RECORD: Android Browser Passes iPhone Safari In Web Browsing Share
Kurt Bakke in Business on February 08
conceivablytech.com
The default Android has become more popular on the Internet than iPhone’s Safari in North America, according to StatCounter.
The Android browser surpassed the iPhone browser for the first time in January, with a share of 24.25%, compared to 23.94% of the iPhone. Android is still on a path of growth, while the StatCounter data indicates that the iPhone has stabilized and trapped in flat growth. However, even more revealing is the nose dive of the Blackberry platform.
RIM’s smartphone browser surrendered almost four points of share in January and landed at 25.85%. If the trend continues, the default Android browser will become the most popular smartphone browser this month. RIM’s default Blackberry browser has held that position since May 2010 when it surpassed the iPhone. The iPhone’s Safari topped out at more than 38% in October 2009.
Globally, Opera still has the lead, followed by Safari. The Blackberry browser dropped from the second spot to fourth, behind Nokia, and is about to be surpassed by Android in this chart as well. As there are multiple browsers available for each smartphone platform, the implications for smartphone presence on the web are limited. According to StatCounter, iOS (which includes all iOS devices, including the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch) is leading and has even improved its share in January from 35.03% to 36.42%. Blackberry saw a drop from 29.92% to 26.05%, which is in close range to Android. Google’s platform jumped from 23.52% to 24.56%.
Worldwide, Symbian is still the dominant platform on mobile devices on the web, with a share just north of 30.25%. iOS follows with 25.02%, Blackberry OS with 15.03% and Android with 14.61%.
A recent Comscore market update confirms the sharp drop for the Blackberry. In the December 2010 quarter, Blackberry accounted for only 31.6% of smartphone platform share in the U.S., down from 37.3% in the preceding quarter. Android was up from 21.4$ to 28.7%, while the iPhone climbed from 24.3% to 25.0%. |
