According to Nielsen, smartphones now account for 44 percent of mobile phones — with over half of users aged 18-34 using them. The top contenders remain Apple, Android and BlackBerry, with Apple owning most of the market share and Android being the fastest-growing operating system. Here are the numbers, via Nielsen:

In 2009, BlackBerry was the most popular mobile device, but today it’s fighting for it’s life. Android is the fastest-growing operating system, but it’s not taking Apple’s share — it’s taking BlackBerry’s.

But that doesn’t mean that Blackberry is dead. In fact, it has a very important niche that businesses should be aware of when making mobile websites.

In October, comScore reported that 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Even with 17 percent of the market, that means BlackBerry currently serves nearly 40 million users. That number of people on the ground simply cannot be ignored by business in general. There are many market segments, such as government and finance, where employees are provided BlackBerrys primarily due to the use of BlackBerry Messenger system. These management-level staffers have high-purchase power and it doesn’t make sense to ignore them. In fact, over the years the “CrackBerry” has carefully built a reputation as being indispensable for high-powered lawyers, financial analysts and other “power users.” These 40 million people have clout — and buying power — and they make up a highly influential audience that marketers would be unwise to overlook.

That’s where Mojaba can help.

Mojaba websites function across all operating systems — including BlackBerry (and the remaining 10.2 percent that are not Apple or Android). That means that no one is ignored when it comes to usability, regardless of market share, particularly in an economy where every single dollar of revenue matters.

Info and graphic for this post was acquired from the Nielsen State of the Media: Mobile Media Report Q3 2011.

Comments

comments