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Not Quite Right: New Report says iPhone has a Commanding Lead in Mobile Browsing Share

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“Here’s no chance that the iPhone is vacant to get any significant market share. No chance,” Steve Ballmer told USA Today a few years ago. Seems the CEO’s perception of the iPhone and its potential success may have been just a small bit off.

According to the first meticulous look at mobile browsing by Web metrics firm Net Applications, the iPhone dominates the mobile browsing market with a 66.61% share. But do the numbers add up?

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“Although the iPhone has a commanding lead in mobile browsing share, Android and BlackBerry are rapidly gaining market share. This does not mean that iPhone Web browsing is shrinking, because the overall market is growing rapidly,” the report notes.

At first glance, the report looks promising until you notice that the BlackBerry only has a 2.24% market share. Odd, given Gartner recently reported that here are more BlackBerry’s out in the world than here are iPhones. Look a small further and it starts to makes sense.

Information about Net Applications mobile share methodology can be found here, but in a nutshell:

“Our mobile share methodology measures share for browser capable mobile devices. This means the mobile device must be able to render HTML pages and JavaScript. Visits to WAP pages are not included.”

VIsits to WAP pages are not included? As in the WAP browser you can install on BlackBerry OS version 2.5 and higher?

As Philip Elmer-DeWitt pointed out earlier today: “Net Applications is judging the race for mobile Web dominance using the rules set by the iPhone,” which we reckon pretty much sums it up.

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