According to the latest comScore mobile subscribers market share report, Google’s Android platform has continued to make significant gains in US mobile market share, largely at the expense of RIM, the makers of BlackBerry mobile devices. Google remains the dominant player in the US mobile market with an average 34.7% of market share during the three months ending March 2011, up 6% on the three months ending December 2010.
RIM have had a disappointing start to 2011, declining by 4.5% in market share, with Microsoft and Palm also witnessing slight decreases, each dropping average shares of 0.9%. Apple made slight gains in the three months ending March 2011 with a 0.5% increase in market share, leading to an overall figure of 25.5% share.
In Ireland the market share changes were largely mirrored, especially where the growth of the Android platform is concerned. According to StatCounter GlobalStats, a service that aggregates analytical traffic data from millions of websites across the web, Android increased its share of mobile web traffic in Ireland to an average of 19% during the three months ending March 2011, a notable increase from 12.3% during the three months ending December 2010. Apple’s share of mobile web traffic in Ireland fell slightly, though still dominant, to 65.5% during the three months ending March 2011, compared to 68.3% during the three months ending December 2010. Symbian’s demise has continued with the once dominant operating system (OS) now accounting for an average of 10.3% mobile web traffic share during the three months ending March 2011. It’s important to note that these Irish figures are mobile web traffic share percentages and not representations of actual platform market shares.
Android’s significant gains, particularly in Ireland, may be attributed to its low barrier of entry. The Samsung Europa and the LG Optimus One are examples of good Android handsets that can be purchased for €99.99 and €189 respectively.
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