BlackBerry web usage growing at Android's pace
updated 10:35 pm EDT, Mon September 27, 2010
RIM web usage doubled in past 12 months
Despite persistent reports suggesting RIM's market share has been eroded by the growth of Android, data gathered by analytics firm StatCounter suggests web usage on BlackBerry handsets has actually grown at the same pace as Google's mobile platform. As Android and BlackBerry show parallel growth from the third and fourth positions, respectively, web usage on the iPhone has slid behind Symbian and within 10 percent of BlackBerry.
StatCounter accumulates global visitor data from more than 3 million websites. The information is said to correlate to market share, although web usage on each platform can increase or decrease independently of handset shipment numbers.
The introduction of BlackBerry OS 6 brought a WebKit-based browser better suited to web browsing, however the StatCounter graph shows RIM's web share following a positive progression well before OS 6 arrived on the market.
Analyst firm Gartner Research recently released a forecast suggesting Android and iOS will both surpass BlackBerry in OS share by 2011. While some analysts point to the Torch as a sign of lackluster performance in the mobile arena, RIM suggests the new handset was the most successful GSM launch in the company's history. [via Pingdom]
