AdMob Feb 2009 Phone Share

Apple's iPhone continues to have the largest share of the smartphone market based on data traffic, according to February data from AdMob. The touchscreen cellphone accounted for exactly 33 percent of all tracked requests worldwide and an even higher 49.5 percent within the US. Other devices trail significantly behind, with the Nokia N70 having just 7.1 percent of world traffic and the BlackBerry Curve 8300 representing 9.1 percent of US data.

AdMob notes that the T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream) and Verizon's BlackBerry Storm are also significantly further back, representing 5.2 percent and 1.7 percent of US traffic respectively; neither charted on the worldwide ranks. Both were nonetheless the top data devices on their respective networks.

Apple is also commanding data share in terms of operating systems. In the six months from August 2008, iPhone OS share jumped from 10 percent of smartphones in the US to reach its claimed 49.5 percent. The jump pushed RIM's BlackBerry share down from 32 percent to 21 percent, while Windows Mobile tumbled further from 30 percent to 13 percent. Palm has also fallen sharply, dropping from 19 percent to 7 percent; Android as a new entry has 5 percent.

Worldwide, Apple is second place to Symbian as the sheer size of Nokia's phone range continues to give it 43 percent. However, the figure represents 21 percent of the market lost since August where Apple climbed from just 4 percent that month to its 33 percent and second-place position in February. Most rivals have also dipped slightly, with all RIM phones dropping a percentage point to 10 percent, Windows Mobile falling from 13 percent to 7 percent and Palm's share halving from 6 percent to 3 percent.

Of all mobile devices regardless of type, the iPhone also led data traffic with 11.2 percent of requests. The iPod touch was second with 6.7 percent, while the Motorola RAZR V3 has fallen to 2.9 percent of traffic. The N70 is the first non-US device to rank with 2.4 percent of online traffic.

The shift towards Apple comes even as heated competition has helped boost smartphones' total share of the market has climbed from 26 percent to 33 percent and as te number of total requests actually dropped 3 percent versus January, though this is partly explained by February's 28-day span.

AdMob is keen to note that the share doesn't represent phone sales alone and instead reflects a combination of this with actual web use. Phones with more advanced web browsers like mobile Safari are more likely to be used online than devices that may be more ubiquitous but discourage web use.

By Electronista Staff

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