It looks like Android and RIM have really been clawing their way up in they smartphone market food chain. Both OS’s have increased their share of North American mobile web traffic a decent amount in the month of February, and let’s hope they don’t stop. On the other end of the spectrum, the iPhone has lost a small amount of mobile web consumption marketshare. But, there are many contributing factors as to how this could be happening, so don’t get your panties in a twist.
First off, we have Android. The little OS that could has grabbed 15.2 % of the market in North America. Up 8.3% from last month, the little-over-a-year-old OS is definitely making strides in the growth department. With a slew of devices coming down the pipeline this year, Android’s numbers can only increase. Droid and Nexus One users are likely using the web more than other Android devices. (no matter how many units that have sold) With 3.7” displays, why would you want to under-utilize a devices capabilities like that? And, with devices like the Desire, Legend, and Motoroi coming in the near future, it’s going to be a good year for Android.
Next up, we’ve got RIM. The Blackberry may have the entire business market behind them, but it’s great to see them still growing. Shares grew 13.2% in the month of February, totaling to 9.2% marketshare. Whether it be that the Storm 2 actually did something notable, or they just changed a button on one of their previous models and named it something else, offering many different Curve’s, RIM’s doing something right.
Meanwhile, in iPhone land, the beast of a phone actually lost 3.2% in marketshare last month. VentureBeat poses a great question when saying, “What we don’t know is how much of the share growth for Android and RIM OS is a result of organic growth in the number of smartphone users versus iPhone users making the switch.” So it could be any number of reasons that Apple’s device has shrank slightly, but still holding 63.7% of the entire countries’ marketshare, they have little to worry about. Right now, the name of the game for other OS’s is to grab as much marketshare as they can before Apple releases its iPhone “refresh” to the masses.
[Via: VentureBeat ]