The iPhone and iTouch devices from Apple, which include the company’s Safari browser, increased their share of the total browser market in the US by 64pc in December from 0.14pc to 0.23pc, according to StatCounter.
The Dublin-based web analytics firm said that globally Nokia is still well ahead in the mobile internet browser market with 0.25pc in March. iPhone and iTouch are No 2 with 0.08pc, ahead of BlackBerry which has 0.01pc.
StatCounter tracks in excess of 9 billion pageloads per month over its network of 2 million websites. Excluding the iTouch media player from the figures, the iPhone’s market share of internet browsing in the US (0.18pc) is still significantly ahead of Nokia’s (0.01pc).
“The key message is that iPhone is more than living up to its claims of being a user-friendly internet browser, unlike many other mobile phones,” explained Aodhan Cullen, founder and CEO of StatCounter.
“The iPhone is already the No 1 mobile browser in the US and No 2 globally despite having a significantly lower market share of overall phone sales,” Cullen added.
The StatCounter analysis found that Microsoft Internet Explorer still leads the browser market overall with 59pc globally compared to open source-based Firefox at 33pc. In the US, the battle is neck and neck with Microsoft IE at 44.5pc and Firefox at 43.9pc.
The StatCounter analysis was based on a sample of 372 million page views globally from December 2007 to March 2008.
By John Kennedy
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