Despite the fact that there are twice as many people who want Android and iPhone as those who want Blackberry, the latter platform is pulling in more usage than any of its competitors.
Nielsen’s latest data for the smartphone industry show that people really want an iPhone, and many also have their eyes on Android. Among all “likely” phone upgraders in the US, more than half said they want their next phone to be one of those two. Only 13% said they want a Blackberry.
But at the same time, StatCounter released numbers about the usage of mobile Internet, and found that the Blackberry operating system is still powering more cell phone data than any other system.
According to its figures, Blackberry OS represented 34.3% of mobile Internet users last month. That beats the iPhone at 33% and Android at 23.8%. It’s noteworthy, however, the direction that these numbers have been heading.
Blackberry’s share of mobile Internet is on the decline, ever so slightly. Meanwhile, Android accounted for just 8% of the market a year ago. So its share has nearly quadrupled over the last 12 months.
Nevertheless, it’s clearly not all doom and gloom for Blackberry, but this news simply means it can’t rest. It need to do something to get people excited about the platform again. If it can’t do that, it will surely lose its position in all mobile industry metrics.
By the way, the loser in this three-way pony race? It’s Microsoft. Only 6% of people looking to upgrade their phone are even interested in the Windows mobile platform.
