Web browsing on Android devices almost five times more popular than 12 months ago

MEC Manchester, a leading media agency, has unveiled new research that reveals web browsing on Android devices is almost five times more popular than 12 months ago. The research also details a decrease in the iPhone's dominance in mobile browsing, and a slight increase in market share for BlackBerry.

The research reveals that web browsing on iPhones is still way ahead of its rivals, but has slipped from 97.89% visit share in October 2009 to 90.98% in September 2010. An increase in popularity in Android handsets has led to a growth from 1.24% to 6.96% across the same period, with BlackBerry achieving growth from 0.87% to 2.07% visit share.

MEC Manchester conducted the research by looking at clients across three sectors, Technology, Health & Beauty and Finance, and graphing out website visits from each of the three mobile operating systems over the 12 month period. Rather than monitoring the increase in mobile browsing - which would have simply displayed increases for each operating system due to the increased popularity in smartphones - visit share has been used as a comparison to more accurately detail how iPhone, Android and BlackBerry are competing against one another.

Mick Style, Managing Director, MEC Manchester said: "At the current rates of growth and decline, iPhone and Android could be expected to share the market within three and a half years. However, any number of factors - such as a proliferation in the number of Android devices, and the recent launch of Windows Phone 7 - are expected to impact this, and we could yet see market share much sooner."