According to analytic firm StatCounter, Apple is now the leading smartphone manufacturer in terms of how much internet browsing is done, knocking Nokia off the top spot. Nokia had just 22.15% in January 2013, down from 37.67% last year. In the latest January 2013 results, Samsung had 22.69% and Apple had 25.86%.
Apple’s marketshare has also fallen from 28.67% last year, probably due to Samsung’s rise in the market – it was at 14.84% last year.
Nokia has long been a favorite in poorer countries such as India, thanks to their simple operating system (Symbian), high durability and low cost devices. They made up 52.1% of the internet browsing share in January 2013, down from 72.95% in January 2012. Samsung now has the second spot in India with 26.87%. It’s unsurprising that Apple didn’t even rank in the top five in India – the iPhone is incredibly expensive to LEDCs, although the company is looking into manufacturing a cheaper iPhone for these markets.
Blackberry has taken the largest hit, falling from 8.3% in January 2012 to 3.48% in January 2013. Blackberry is in trouble, although they’ve just recently announced their latest operating system (BB 10) which some tech analysts feel could save the struggling company.