“Apple’s iPhone still has what Net Applications describes as a ‘commanding lead’ in the smartphone search market,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
“As Net Applications measures it — [the mobile device must be able to render HTML pages and javascript; visits to WAP pages are not included] — the iPhone’s share of searches dropped in March to 63.41% from 66.44%,” Elmer-DeWitt reports.
“This does not mean that iPhone Web browsing is shrinking, the Web metrics firm notes, because the overall market is growing rapidly,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “But it does mean that Google’s Android, Nokia’s Symbian and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry — in that order — are catching up, although none has yet managed to grab more than a 9% share.”
“Android’s growth is particularly striking: up 2.31 points, or 36%, in one month,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “The BlackBerry, which was consigned to the catch-all ‘other’ category in February, finally emerged in March as a line item of its own, but with only a 2.69% share.”
Elmer-DeWitt reports, “WAP (for Wireless Application Protocol) was the Web browsing standard for BlackBerries and other mobile phones – famously dismissed by Steve Jobs as the “baby Web“ — until the iPhone came along and offered a Web browser with HTML and Javascript.”
More in the full article here.
Net Applications’ “Mobile Browsing by Platform Market Share” is here.
