Fixed Mobile Convergence

Is it possible that the BlackBerry (News - Alert) is taking dominance back from Apple? According to a recent InformationWeek report, the BlackBerry Operating System (OS) accounted for 34.3 percent of Internet users, topping out above Apple (News - Alert) iOS’s 33 percent of mobile Internet users.

These stats are courtesy of StatCounter’s tracking of performance in this space. The company shared that in the U.S., the iOS has been quite used to dominating in this space. In fact, Apple once had a commanding lead of 51.9 percent of the market. Since November of 2009, however, the iOS has fallen rapidly.

At the same time, the Google Android platform racked up its share by a factor of three. November of 2009 found the platform claiming only 8.2 percent of mobile Internet traffic. By November of 2010, its share had risen to 23.8 percent – all the while cutting into Apple’s share.

Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter CEO, noted in InformationWeek that these numbers suggest that developers would be making the wrong decision if they opted to only develop for the iPhone (News - Alert) and not also the BlackBerry and the Android.

As impressive as these numbers are, it is important to highlight that they do not reflect the global picture. At that level, Nokia’s (News - Alert) Symbian still dominates with 31.9 percent of the market. Apple comes in second with 21.9 percent and BlackBerry is trailing third with 19.3 percent. Android holds only 11.6 percent.

Cullen pointed out that this data demonstrates the truly royal battle that is raging in the smartphone market for the consumer and business Internet user. Whether or not Microsoft will be a formidable player eventually with its Windows Phone (News - Alert) 7, it is too early to tell. However, you can never underestimate Microsoft. The only sure thing is that it will be an uphill battle.

To capture its data, StatCounter analyzed page views across three million different websites. The data captured only refers to the iOS and not specifically to the iPhone. As a result, it is unclear whether or not StatCounter is including traffic from other iOS devices, such as the iPad and iPod Touch.

This will be an exciting battle to watch as the leading players continue to vie for adoption on both the consumer and enterprise fronts. Who will emerge the winner is at this point, anyone’s guess.