Survey: Android ties iOS in smartphone share

Millennial Media, a global mobile advertising network, has issued a study showing that for the first time, the combined Android share of the market has tied with iOS devices at 37 percent of network requests (ad clicks) on Millennial's network. Research In Motion (RIM)'s Blackberries had a 20 percent share, leaving all other mobile OSes to divvy up the remaining six percent.

While Apple devices still dominate the mobile market by brand, the combined phones running Android have caught up to Apple's early lead, with Android presence having grown over 2000 percent since January, compared to iOS devices which grew 32 percent in the same period.

The October "Mobile Mix" survey presents a global snapshot of device, carrier and OS statistics garnered through response to Millennial's advertising network. The picture the latest report paints is of a three-way race in mobile phone and non-computer mobile hardware manufacturing between Apple, Motorola and RIM.

Apple's early dominance continues in terms of devices, with the combined iOS devices accounting for a 25 percent share of impressions, with Samsung and Motorola in the second and third positions at 17 and 15 percent respectively. The survey does include "non-phone connected mobile devices" (meaning those that primarily access Wi-Fi, like the iPod Touch or the PlayStation Portable) as well as cellular-data devices in its survey. Millennial does not include laptops or netbooks in its results.

Foreign use of mobile devices is increasing around 20 percent faster than in the US, where growth in the mobile market is rated at about seven percent. The hottest growth rate among "primarily wi-fi" devices was the iPad, with 112 percent month-over-month. The survey also found that touchscreen devices have decimated the market for keyboard phones; 75 percent of mobile devices use either just touchscreens (48 percent) or a combination of touch and qwerty keyboards (27 percent).

Among carriers, Verizon was found to be the most popular US network, matching the generic "Wi-Fi" category at 19% of impressions. Spring and T-Mobile followed behind, with AT&T having only a nine percent share.

Read more: http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/11/18/ipad.android.experiencing.rapid.growth/#ixzz15gs97Boh