The 51Degrees.mobi Mobile Web Trends 2011 white paper shows that the proportion of mobile web visitors in the USA with Android devices overtook Apple users by the end of the year. The share of Apple iOS web traffic in December 2011 fell to 34.1% in the US, while Android increased to 36.6%.
In Europe, Apple remained ahead with 42.6% of mobile web visits despite an increase in Android usage to 25.5% by the end of 2011.
Figures for RIM’s BlackBerry OS were stable in the USA and Europe throughout the second half of 2011, varying by just a fraction of a percentage point. Both regions saw BlackBerry usage remain at around 9% of all mobile web traffic.
Unlike the mobile market in Europe and the USA, mobile phone use in India has been dominated by Nokia and its Symbian operating system for several years. Nokia mobile web visits fell in H2 2011 from 57.3% of the total figure to 50.6% by the end of the year.
The data has been collated from customers who use 51Degrees.mobi free and premium device detection services.
“The battle for mobile operating system dominance is far from over”, said 51Degrees.mobi CEO James Rosewell. “Apple experienced record sales of iPad2 and iPhone devices, yet its share of mobile web traffic declined in the US and Europe - indicating just how many more Android based products were used online in the same period.”
Users of 51Degrees.mobi’s services detected over 140 million device visits in December 2011, giving the company a unique insight into mobile internet use. It shares this information with owners of web sites who provide it with mobile device data and with customers who’ve purchased a Support & Maintenance Agreement.