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Mobile Internet access doubled in 2011, data shows

Over the past 12 months, mobile access to the Internet nearly doubled to 8.5%, not counting tablets, according to data released this week by StatCounter, a Web analytics company.

The vast majority of Internet usage is still tied to desktop PCs, the data shows. Yet in the fast-growing mobile space, the name that dominates the PC world, Microsoft, is invisible. Nokia remains the leading mobile vendor worldwide, but the Web page-view numbers show a company in decline over the past year, as is Research in Motion, when compared to Apple. The growing mobile operating systems are iOS and Android.

StatCounter’s figures are based on aggregate data it collects from a sample of more than 15 billion page views monthly on its network of over 3 million websites. The page views are dissected based on the requesting device’s OS, mobile browser, and brand, among other variables. The complete report, in the form of interactive line or bar charts, which also covers desktop browsing data, is available online.

Internet access through mobile devices, except for laptops, jumped from 4.3% in January 2011 to 8.5% last month. In January 2010, the share was just 1.7%.

Globally, the Symbian OS still dominates in the StatCounter sample: devices running this OS accounted for 32% of StatCounter page views, but it’s trending downward. IOS accounted for 24%, with Android just below that; both are trending upward. BlackBerry OS plunged, from 15% a year ago to just under 8% last month.

Mobile browser user reflects the platforms they are associated with. Opera, with just under 24% of the page views globally remained the leader, but trending down. The Android browser was just ahead of Apple’s Safari at 20%, with both trending upward. Nokia’s browser accounted for about 12% of page views, BlackBerry browser about 7%, both of them trending downward.

Looking at the global page view numbers in terms of the device vendors, Nokia-branded devices hovered around 40% of the total, ending the year at 38%; Apple ended with about 29%, but again was trending upward. RIM again showed its decline: dropping from 18% to about 9%. Samsung rose during the year from about 7% to 15%, most of that presumably from its Android-based product line though it does offer mobile devices running its own Bada operating systems or Microsoft Windows Phone.

StatCounter has also announced that new stats regarding mobile vendors are now available on its Global Stats website. The firm has been compiling and refining these stats for some time and has now made the beta project public. Based on initial research covering all traffic to the StatCounter network, Nokia leads worldwide, most probably driven by its dominance in India. Apple is second globally.

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