Apple’s smartphone operating system (OS) maintained its leading position in overall U.S. marketshare during the past six months, followed by Research in Motion’s Blackberry platform and Google’s Android OS, according to a report released Monday by The Nielsen Company.
The data showed the race is tighter than ever, with Apple’s iOS posting a 28.6 percent marketshare, followed by the Blackberry at 26.1 percent and Google’s Android OS at 25.8 percent.
However, despite Apple’s clear lead over Android, all three operating systems were within the margin of error and remain statistically tied, the report said.
The Android OS surged in popularity among adults who purchased a smartphone within the last six months, with 40.8 percent having bought phones running Android, Nielsen reported.
Apple’s share among “Ëœrecent adult acquirers’ was just 26.9 percent, but that was up from the 20.9 percent share the company had over the prior six months before the iPhone 4 was launched.
RIM’s BlackBerry platform ranked third among ‘recent adult acquirers,’ comprising 19.2 percent of the market, a significant decline from its high of 35 percent in June. RIM’s loss seems to have benefited both Apple (which rose by 6 percentage points during the same period) and Android (which rose by 13).
Meanwhile, new data from NetMarketShare shows that Apple’s iOS had the largest gain in overall usage share among those accessing the Web on its platform, driven in part by strong holiday sales.
However, Web use on the Android platform grew at the fastest rate, the data showed.
Apple’s iOS secured 1.69 percent of Web users worldwide, up from 1.36 percent, representing a 24.3 percent growth rate. Android had 0.4 percent of global Web users in December, up from 0.31 percent in November for a growth rate of 29 percent. Android began the year with a 0.07 percent share in February, while iOS had 0.61 percent that month.
RIM’s BlackBerry platform had a 0.13 percent share in December, up from 0.11 percent in November, for an 18 percent growth rate.
The NetMarketShare data was based on all browsing by all devices, not just smartphones.
For its iOS data, NetMarketShare broke out Web use among the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and determined that the iPad grew at a rate of 33.3 percent between November and December, while the iPhone grew at 20 percent and the iPod touch at 25 percent.
The research firm emphasized that the data included the holiday season, and that these figures typically taper off in January.
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