Apples iOS is a dominant presence on the mobile Web, though how dominant depends on who is doing the calculating.
In separate reports, Net Applications and StatCounter found that iOS or Googles Android mobile operating system continue to capture an increasingly large share of the mobile traffic at the expense of such platforms as Research In Motions BlackBerry and Nokias Symbian OS.
According to Net Applications, iOS market share is particularly largeand growing. In June, Apples operating systemused in iPhones, iPads and iPodshad a share of 65.27 percent, a number that has grown steadily from 53.04 percent in August 2011. Meanwhile, Androids share of the market stood at 19.73 percent, up from 15.98 percent in August 2011.
And this is despite Android smartphone sales outdistancing those of iPhones.
The combination of iOS and Android far outdistances other mobile platforms, according to Net Applications. The report showed that Java MEwhich is found on feature phoneshad a market share of 10.22 percent, half of the 20.57 percent from 10 months ago, while BlackBerrys share of 1.87 percent was less than the 3.33 percent from August 2011.
Symbian, which Nokia has dropped in favor of Windows Phone, saw its share plummet, from 6.21 percent 10 months ago to 1.49 percent in June.
Apple devices were the top devices, according to Net Applications. The iPad had 36.68 percent of the market, followed by the iPhone, at 26.85 percent. Android 2.3 was third with 11.95 percent, and several other versions of Androidincluding versions 2.2, 4.0 and 3.2helped fill out the top 10.
Java ME was fourth, BlackBerry seventh and Symbian ninth.
Net Applications monitors 40,000 client sites and counts hits, then weighs the results based on various statistics, including counting only the number of unique visitors.
However, StatCounter monitors as many as 3 million Websites and doesnt weigh the results in any way, according to a fact sheet on its Website.
Every month, we record billions of page views to these sites, the company says on the site. For each page view, we analyze the browser/operating system/screen resolution used and we establish if the page view is from a mobile device. For our search engine stats, we analyze every page view referred by a search engine. For our social media stats, we analyze every page view referred by a social media site. We summarize all this data to get our Global Stats information.
The company found that for June, iOS and Android each held just over 24 percent of the market, with the trend going up. By comparison, other mobile platformsincluding BlackBerry and Symbianheld less than 10 percent.
The numbers in the Net Applications and StatCounter echo what other firms are seeing in mobile traffic. According to a report in March from cloud security software firm Zscaler, mobile traffic in the fourth quarter of 2011 grew 85 percent from the same period in 2010, with iOS and Google devices accounting for about 87 percent of the traffic. BlackBerrys share dropped to 13 percent in the fourth quarter, according to the company.