According to the statistics available on statcounter.com, from January 2009 to January 2010, iPhone browser traffic share actually decreased, not increased, as one might expect.
This is likely due to new competition from Android phones, as well as the possibility that more users are simply using iPhone native apps instead of web apps.
In any case, in my opinion these are the figures we ought to be looking at, not overall phone sales, as others such as PPK concentrate on. If we don’t use computer sales as an estimate of desktop browser share, then why should we use phone sales as an estimate of mobile browser share? Just because someone has a phone with a pre-installed browser doesn’t lead them to actually use it.
In any case, here’s the statistics, with a few surprises:
- iPhone/iTouch web traffic share decreased in the US and worldwide
- BlackBerry gained market share
- NetFront gained market share (this somewhat baffled me)
And now for the stats…
Worldwide mobile browser traffic (% share)
| Device | 2009 % | 2010 % | % change |
| Opera | 24.69 | 25.53 | +0.84 |
| iPhone | 23.06 | 21.52 | -1.54 |
| Nokia | 17.78 | 18.53 | +1.75 |
| iTouch | 12.89 | 11.6 | -1.29 |
| BlackBerry | 4.91 | 9.85 | +4.94 |
| Android | 1.92 | 4.54 | +2.62 |
| NetFront | 1.35 | 3.27 | +1.92 |
| Sony PSP | 4.38 | 1.2 | -3.18 |
| Openwave | 2.61 | 0.97 | -1.64 |
| (Other) | 6.41 | 2.98 | -3.43 |
US mobile browser traffic (% share)
| Device | 2009 % | 2010 % | % change |
| iPhone | 37.01 | 32.96 | -4.05 |
| iTouch | 23.49 | 20.62 | -2.87 |
| BlackBerry | 11.37 | 19.32 | +7.95 |
| Android | 5.19 | 11.9 | +6.71 |
| Sony PSP | 7.68 | 2.18 | -5.5 |
| Opera | 3.56 | 3.06 | -0.5 |
| Openwave | 3.07 | 2.04 | -1.03 |
| NetFront | 1 | 2.26 | +1.26 |
| IEMobile | 3.12 | 0.74 | -2.38 |
| (Other) | 4.5 | 4.92 | +0.42 |
Predictions for 2010:
- Android continues to increase market share
- Decrease in NetFront market share (opposite of current trend)
- Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Series reverses downward IE trend
- iPad grows in market share (this is a given, but will it break the top 10?)
Source: statcounter.com
Using your source, filter for Australia and explain why Blackberry surged from 4.21% market share in July 2009, to 54.83% the following month, then 58.66% in September and 61.22% in October before crashing back to about 1.43% in November then jumping back up to 56.99% in December.
Their iPhone figures seem to be directly inversely proportional in those same months.
With absolutely crazy fluctuations like that (and Nokia, iPod Touch and NetFront all react the same way), I’d want to be checking any and all claims against other sources before even beginning to draw conclusions.