John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

The Mobile OS World: Symbian, iOS Are Superpowers; Android a Developing Nation

Some sobering data points for the Droid army and a reminder that the Android onslaught is still largely a domestic phenomenon (for Koreans). Mobile Web usage statistics for the month of October compiled by StatCounter and Royal Pingdom reveal Apple’s iOS and Nokia’s Symbian as the dominant platforms, with Android besting them in a single country.

Unsurprisingly, Symbian is the leading mobile OS worldwide. It’s dominant in some 100 countries and accounts for more that half of all mobile Web usage in 75 of them. It essentially owns the Mideast and most of the developing world, thanks to those regions’ affinity for Nokia’s cheap mobile phones.

Apple’s iOS is the second most used mobile OS worldwide, with its iPhone and iPod touch claiming the most mobile Web traffic in 30 countries. In 21 of them, those devices accounted for more than half of all mobile Web traffic. IOS appears most popular in Canada, Cuba (!), Switzerland and Australia, where it claims over 70 percent of all mobile Web traffic. Interestingly, it’s quite a bit less popular in the United States, where it garnered a little over 35 percent.

Research in Motion’s BlackBerry OS leads four countries, with one–the Dominican Republic–where OS usage is over 50 percent. Shockingly, in its home country of Canada, it accounts for a paltry 3.6 percent of mobile Web traffic.

And Android?

It leads just one country, South Korea, with a 78.3 percent share of all mobile Web traffic. Presumably, that’s thanks to Samsung, which is based in the country and sells a number of Android phones. So while Android is surging ahead, thanks to Google’s strategy of flooding the market with multiple handsets on multiple carriers at a wide range of price points, there’s still a hell of a lot of market share that it hasn’t even come close to touching.

Top countries for iOS Top countries for Android Top countries for Blackberry Top countries for Symbian
1. Canada, 83.7% 1. South Korea, 78.3% 1. Dominican Republic, 57.1% 1. Chad, 94.0%
2. Cuba, 77.2% 2. Austria, 27.3% 2. Guatemala, 45.4% 2. Libya, 93.9%
3. Switzerland, 76.7% 3. Taiwan, 26.5% 3. United Kingdom, 40.4% 3. Sudan, 92.9%
4. Australia, 72.5% 4. Denmark, 25.3% 4. Colombia, 38.9% 4. Iraq, 90.1%
5. Ireland, 69.7% 5. Slovenia, 24.0% 5. El Salvador, 37.54% 5. Oman, 88.3%
6. New Zealand, 69.0% 6. United States, 23.3% 6. United States, 32.0% 6. Jordan, 87.1%
7. France, 67.4% 7. Netherlands, 21.7% 7. Indonesia, 31.7% 7. Egypt, 86.6%
8. Singapore, 64.6% 8. Sweden, 21.3% 8. Saudi Arabia, 30.6% 8. Somalia, 85.2%
9. Denmark, 64.3% 9. Estonia, 16.8% 9. Panama, 29.2% 9. Mozambique, 84.4%
10. Sweden, 61.6% 10. Norway, 16.0% 10. Jamaica, 18.8% 10. Paraguay, 83.9%

[Image credit: Chart and data courtesy Royal Pingdom]

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— Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com comments on the dreadful opening weekend box office numbers for “The Fifth Estate.”