Tuesday 8th March 2011

Use of mobile to access Internet more than doubles over past year

Boston, USA & Dublin, Ireland; Tuesday, 8th March, 2011: Google's Android mobile operating system overtook RIM's BlackBerry globally for the first time on a monthly basis in February according to web analytics company, StatCounter. Its research arm StatCounter Global Stats finds that Android recorded 15.2% of the worldwide market compared to 14.5% for BlackBerry. Nokia's Symbian still leads the global market with 30.7% with Apple iOS in second place with 24.6%.

StatCounter data also pinpoints the rise and rise of mobile devices* to access the Internet. The use of mobile to access the Internet compared to desktop has more than doubled worldwide from 1.72% a year ago to 4.45% today. The same trend is evident in the US with mobile Internet usage more than doubling over the past year from 2.59% to 6.32%.

StatCounter, which specialises in website analytics for organisations and bloggers, provides free lifetime stats and free detailed analysis on the latest 500 hits. Members can upgrade to access more detailed stats from $5 a month.

"The momentum is certainly with Android which has almost tripled its market share over the last 12 months from 5.4% to 15.2%," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. In the same period iOS fell globally from 33.9% to 24.6%.^#

In North America Android at 26.4% in February also overtook BlackBerry at 22.2%. iOS leads the North American market with 37.5%. Compared to its global presence Symbian is well back in North America with 5.7%.

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

StatCounter, which provides free website stats, publishes mobile operating system stats via StatCounter Global Stats, a free online research tool. It also monitors other Internet market share battles including Social Media.

Ends

* A mobile device is defined as a pocket-sized computing device, typically having a display screen with touch input or a miniature keyboard.
^# The iPad does not conform to the above definition of mobile device and is not therefore included in these stats.

Press queries to: Kerri Crowley, Simpson Financial & Technology PR
T: +353 1 260 5300 or E: kerri@simpsonftpr.ie

For individual country analysis go to:
https://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-ww-monthly-201002-201102

Further information on our analysis is available at:
https://gs.statcounter.com/faq

About StatCounter

StatCounter, a free online visitor stats tool, was founded in 1999. It offers its members the chance to grow and improve their online businesses by allowing them to monitor the number of hits to their website; the geographical location of visitors; the various pages a visitor views; keywords used to find the site plus other features. For information on this real-time, user-friendly, and free visitor stats tool, please visit http://statcounter.com.