BlackBerry tops Apple in mobile web use

The BlackBerry mobile operating system has for the first time overtaken its rivals at Apple in terms of web usage, according to new numbers from the U.S. web analytics company StatCounter.

The research firm found that US BlackBerry OS edged out Apple’s iOS in November, taking 34.4 per cent of market share. Apple’s iOS, serving iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices, recorded 33 per cent in the same month.

The sampling of more than 15 billion page views per month on more than three million websites in StatCounter’s network recorded only U.S. figures.

"These figures suggest that developers should not be developing solely for the iPhone to the exclusion of BlackBerry and Android," said Aodhan Cullen, the CEO of StatCounter.

Android, the mobile operating system by Google, has also been gaining traction, having tripled to 23.8 per cent of the market this year from 8.2 per cent last November in terms of web usage.

Cullen projected that if the trends continue, BlackBerry and Android together are poised to double the size of Apple’s iOS in mobile internet usage in 2011.