Is the Apple iPhone The Number One Smartphone in the US?

Some seemingly conflicting information out of two different surveys from this week perhaps give us a clue to the real answer to the title of this news piece. Nielsen have published a survey which shows that Apple’s iPhone has just managed to poke its nose ahead of RIM’s US OS market share. Apple has 27.9%, and RIM has 27.4%, whilst Android is nipping at both of their heels with 22.7% itself.

However, AppleInsider are quoting a report from StatCounter which shows that Blackberry is ahead of the iPhone, for the first time ever, in internet usage.

RIM’s Blackberry OS had 34.3% of web browsing share in November, and Apple had 33.3%. Whilst Android increased its overall web browsing share from 8.2% last year to 23.8% this year. By comparison Apple was at 51.9% last year. Which is a rather large drop for them in 2010. Or is it? It is after all only a percentage. So in actual fact the amount of iPhones browsing the web has still increased, just not as dramatically as that of Android.

Globally Nokia still has the largest browser share, which is not surprising as it has mobile phone all over the world which have been selling for years. So its installed base alone still buoys its user base. But similarly to Apple in the US its overall share has dropped, and it now shares that with Apple at 21.9%, RIM at 19.3% and Android at 11.6%.

So the market is growing for all, as well as levelling off for the leaders.

The answer to the title of this piece? It’s too close to call. Apple and RIM are neck and neck in the US. What do you think? Have your say in the comments below.

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