Apple’s iOS claims over 50% of the mobile internet market share

It’s a well-known fact that smartphones running on Android surpass the sales posted by iPhone regularly, even though Apple has a really huge following worldwide–myself included. However, a report by web analytics firm Net Applications has found that more than half of the mobile internet market share is actually claimed by Apple. For this week, the market share of devices running on the iOS was recorded at 54.65%. So how did Apple manage this?

Well, for one, they offer three devices (each of which has a tier of generations and upgraded versions) that have become extremely popular: the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. The thing is, each belongs in a different category: a touchscreen multi-media player, a smartphone, and a tablet. That in itself ensures that the reach of the devices is a big one.

The report released by Net Applications was based on monitoring live stats of users and customers, which include a vast 40,000 Web sites worldwide. This includes e-Commerce, pay-per-click, content, and corporate sites. Apple posted a huge 55% market share, while its competitors were left behind in the cold: JAVA ME recorded 18.52%, Android came in at third with 16.25%, Nokia eased into the fourth position with 6.12%, while Research in Motion (RIM) only had a 3.29% share.

Apple’s posted market share can be further broken down to the respective devices being used to access mobile sites:

You can also expect the most popular browser of the bunch to be the one that the iOS devices run on, which is Safari. It’s the most widely used mobile browser at a record 55.6%, while the Opera Mini posted 18.9% and the Android Browser at 16% only.

This report makes sense. If you remember something an official from Three Mobile said back in December 2009: “It’s taken until now for 3G to take off, and it’s still a small proportion of users who have mobile broadband. Now the situation is rapidly turning. Two things are driving the problem – smart phones present one, but the bigger problem at the moment is mobile broadband services – used by dongles. I think the operators are starting to worry.” The official was talking about how the popularity of the iPhone could cause a potential problem for mobile broadband networks in not being able to meet the usage demands.