The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency within the United States Department of Commerce, will stop using BlackBerry phones later this year and instead supply workers with Apple’s mobile devices. In a memo relayed by Loop Insight, NOAA’s Chief Information Officer and Director for High Performance Computing and Communications said that support for BlackBerry phones will cease in May of this year. Apple’s iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S will replace the agency’s BlackBerry handsets, and NOAA plans to adopt current and future generations of Apple’s iPad tablet as well. Research In Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones have been the U.S. government’s go-to solution for wireless devices due to their enhanced security and robust messaging capabilities. Loop Insight’s report did not indicate that the NOAA memo provided an explanation for the agency’s decision.

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When new CEO Thorsten Henis took the reins at Research In Motion, he immediately pointed to the smartphone vendor’s marketing strategy as an area the company needed to focus on if it hoped to regain share in key markets like the United States. The wheels on RIM’s recent marketing efforts had already been set in motion, however, and early reports suggest that the increased volume of familiar BlackBerry ads aren’t having the impact RIM was hoping for. Read on for more.

RIM ramped up its marketing efforts in January, but the move does not appear to have paid off. “Our January checks indicated weak sell-through trends for the new BlackBerry 7 smartphones despite increased marketing efforts,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley wrote in a research note to investors late Wednesday night. “With very strong share gains for the iPhone 4S, increasingly price competitive Android smartphones, improving Windows smartphones, and strong sales of the affordable 7 inch Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, we anticipate increasing competition across all tiers of RIM’s products in C2012.”

As a result of weakening device sales and RIM’s poor outlook for the current quarter, the analyst lowered his estimates for RIM’s February quarter as well as the vendor’s full fiscal year. And despite a new round of marketing that kicked off in February with RIM’s “Be Bold” campaign, Walkley doesn’t see much changing for the Waterloo, Ontario-based until late in 2012.

“Given the strong share gains for Apple post the launch of the iPhone 4S and increasing Android and Windows competition in all price tiers, we believe BlackBerry 7 products will continue to struggle until BB10 products launch in late C2012,” the analyst noted. RIM expected to launch its first QNX-powered BlackBerry 10 smartphone — code-named the BlackBerry London — toward the end of the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter.

Walkley reiterated his Hold rating on RIM’s stock and maintained his $15 price target.

I love my iPhone. In fact, I’ve loved every iPhone Apple has launched since the first model was unveiled in 2007. Slowly but surely, Apple has introduced new features and eliminated upon almost every major gripe people had with iOS to push the limits of what we expect from a modern smartphone, and also to keep the platform on par with or even ahead of the competition. Copy and paste, MMS, background apps, multitasking, notifications, folders and much more have been added over time. There is one thing that makes me hate my iPhone every single day though, and I hope Apple is going to address it soon. I need more control over my alerts.

I really wish Apple would create an area in settings, or even add on to the notifications options, to allow users to set custom alert settings for different things. For instance, I’d love it if I could have different profile modes with settings for vibrate, ring, volume and ringtone much like how RIM’s BlackBerry phones have worked for ages. And there’s plenty of room for improvement beyond what RIM is doing in its BlackBerry OS… just look at how great Motorola’s Smart Actions feature is. Apple could totally take this one step further and allow location-based profiles for alerts, system settings, and more. When I get home, I want Bluetooth to turn off automatically, and I want my alert profile to change, for instance.

I might want my phone to vibrate for almost all alerts, and sometimes I want my phone ring as well. Sometimes I want everything to be on silent and have my phone ring only if it’s a certain person calling or messaging me. I just want more control over how my phone acts in this respect — it’s something that is half-assed in its current state. Sure, you can set custom alert tones for SMS and iMessage, and you can set custom ringers for specific contacts as well, but this is all being fed through a very rudimentary ”your phone is either on ring or vibrate, you idiot” switch.

If Apple does decide to introduce some sort of profile control, it will fix one of the most glaring holes still in iOS, in my view. We’ll get there eventually, I believe.

T-Mobile announced on Tuesday the company’s Valentine’s Day sale on all 4G smartphones and tablets. “T-Mobile has a commitment to make the 4G experience affordable and accessible to everyone, so this sweet deal on smartphones and tablets is our Valentine’s gift to consumers,” said T-Mobile’s senior vice president of marketing, John Clelland. “No matter where loved ones live, T-Mobile wants to bring them closer with unlimited talking, photo sharing, video chatting, texting, and more.” The carrier is offering the Samsung Galaxy S II, BlackBerry Bold 9900, HTC Amaze 4G, Lumia 710, SpringBoard tablet and other 4G devices for free with a new two-year agreement. This one-day sale is scheduled for this Saturday, February 11th. Read on for T-Mobile’s press release.

Cupid’s Arrow Hits Mark: T-Mobile Offers Free 4G Phones to Celebrate Valentine’s

For one day only, on Feb.11, all of T-Mobile’s 4G smartphones and select mobile broadband devices are free with the switch to a qualifying two-year plan

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Feb. 7, 2012 — In the spirit of the season, T-Mobile USA, Inc. will show consumers lots of love with another jaw-dropping promotion for its “Valentine’s Day Sale.” For one day only, Saturday, Feb. 11, T-Mobile will give customers the chance to get their hands on the latest 4G smartphones and select tablets for free, making a perfect gift for loved ones or themselves. The promotion includes T-Mobile’s fastest 4G smartphones and select tablets running on America’s Largest 4G Network® such as the Samsung Galaxy S™ II1 and the T-Mobile® SpringBoard™ with Google™.

New and existing eligible customers can take advantage of this deal receiving their device for free after a mail-in rebate card when they sign up for a new two-year contract on any qualifying Classic Plan™2 or for a $0.00 down payment after mail-in rebate card when signing up on a qualifying Unlimited Value™3 Plan.

“T-Mobile has a commitment to make the 4G experience affordable and accessible to everyone, so this sweet deal on smartphones and tablets is our Valentine’s gift to consumers,” said John Clelland, senior vice president of marketing, T-Mobile USA. “No matter where loved ones live, T-Mobile wants to bring them closer with unlimited talking, photo sharing, video chatting, texting, and more.”

A recent online Omnibus survey4 with Harris Interactive found that four-in-ten (44%) of first time smartphone buyers in 2012 say the cost of the data plan associated with the smartphone is the most influential reason they have not purchased a smartphone before. The value for customers extends beyond the “Valentine’s Day Sale” as T-Mobile offers the best rate plan pricing on America’s Largest 4G Network.

Research In Motion executivess took the stage during BlackBerry DevCon Europe on Tuesday to clear up a few facts about the company’s success with its BlackBerry App World marketplace. RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins said BlackBerry App World is now home to more than 60,000 applications, which is a fraction of what’s available in the Android Market or iTunes App Store, and that BlackBerry devices are among the most popular smartphones purchased in the United Kingdom. RIM’s vice president of developer relations Alec Saunders also said that there are 174 million app downloads per month, or about 6 million applications downloaded per day, The Verge reported. Saunders argued that RIM’s BlackBerry App World has 43% more daily downloads per app than Apple’s own iTunes App Store and he said App World can be more profitable as well — BlackBerry apps supposedly earn about 40% more than their Android counterparts, and 13% of BlackBerry developers have made more than $100,000 from their apps. In addition to the app figures, Saunders and Nokia’s head of Qt announced that RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook OS now supports the Qt developer framework, originally intended for Nokia devices.

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Smartphone shipments overtook client PC shipments for the first time in 2011, according to new data from market research firm Canalys. Vendors shipped a total of 158.5 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, representing a 57% increase compared to the 101.2 million units shipped in the same quarter a year earlier. Shipments for the full year of 2011 rose 63% to 487.7 million units, up from 299.7 million shipped in 2010. The PC market only grew 15% to 414.6 million units in 2011, which included an astonishing 274% increase in tablet shipments — tablets accounted for 15% of all PC shipments last year according to Canalys. The firm expects growth in the smartphone market to slow in 2012, with vendors putting more focus on profitability. Canalys’s press release follows below.

Smart phones overtake client PCs in 2011

•       Vendors shipped 488 million smart phones in 2011, compared to 415 million client PCs
•       Apple was the leading smart phone vendor in 2011, following record Q4 shipments

Palo Alto, Shanghai, Singapore and Reading – 3 February 2012

Canalys today released its full, detailed Q4 2011 country-level smart phone shipment estimates to clients, so completing the picture for the year. One notable result was that total annual global shipments of smart phones exceeded those of client PCs (including pads) for the first time.

Vendors shipped 158.5 million smart phones in Q4 2011, up 57% on the 101.2 million units shipped in Q4 2010. This bumper quarter took total global shipments for the whole of 2011 to 488.0 million units, up 63% on the 299.7 million smart phones shipped throughout 2010. By comparison, the global client PC market grew 15% in 2011 to 414.6 million units, with 274% growth in pad shipments. Pads accounted for 15% of all client PC shipments in 2011.

“In 2011 we saw a fall in demand for netbooks, and slowing demand for notebooks and desktops as a direct result of rising interest in pads,” said Chris Jones, Canalys VP and Principal Analyst. “But pads have had negligible impact on smart phone volumes and markets across the globe have seen persistent and substantial growth through 2011. Smart phone shipments overtaking those of client PCs should be seen as a significant milestone. In the space of a few years, smart phones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to becoming a truly mass-market proposition. The greater availability of smart phones at lower price points has helped tremendously, but there has been a driving trend of increasing consumer appetite for Internet browsing, content consumption and engaging with apps and services on mobile devices.”

However, Canalys expects to see smart phone market growth slow in 2012 as vendors exercise greater cost control and discipline, and put more focus on profitability. Notably, even vendors who have focused on conquering the low-end of the market with aggressive pricing, such as Huawei, ZTE and LG, are now placing greater attention on the higher tiers. Flagship models aimed at raising selling prices and improving margins will feature more heavily this year.

Apple’s impressive end to the year resulted in it becoming the leading smart phone and client PC vendor in Q4 2011, with shipments of 37.0 million iPhones, 15.4 million iPads and 5.2 million Macs. It also smashed the record for the most smart phones shipped globally by any single vendor in one quarter, beating Nokia’s previous record of 28.3 million shipped in Q4 2010. Moreover, Apple’s performance meant that it displaced Nokia, for the first time, as the leading smart phone vendor by annual shipments. Apple shipped 93.1 million iPhones in 2011, representing growth of 96% over 2010. The iPhone 4S benefitted from pent-up demand resulting from the launch coming in October rather than June, but Apple’s overall volume was also buoyed by continued shipments of the now more aggressively priced iPhone 4 and 3GS models.

Samsung also finished 2011 with a flourish. It shipped 35.3 million smart phones in Q4 2011 under its own brand, bringing its total to 91.9 million for the year, compared to just 24.9 million in 2010. This excludes shipments of rebranded products, such as the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, which Canalys counts under the Google brand. Samsung continued to spend big on marketing activities, and its strong product portfolio – particularly the Android-based Galaxy S II – performed well.

Despite a disappointing set of financial results, Nokia’s smart phone performance in the fourth quarter gave cause for optimism. It shipped 19.6 million smart phones, down 31% from the record high of a year earlier, but up 17% on Q3 2011. The total was helped by 1.2 million and 0.6 million shipments of its Windows Phone and MeeGo-based products respectively, as well as improved Symbian Belle volumes from competitively priced devices such as the Nokia 500, 700 and 701. Its total smart phone shipments for the year came in at 77.3 million globally.

“Its first Windows Phone products, the Lumia 800 and 710, along with the recently announced Lumia 900 through AT&T in the US, have improved the outlook for Nokia,” said Canalys Senior Analyst, Tim Shepherd. “They are well-designed, competitive devices that demonstrate innovation is still alive within Nokia. But the battle is not over and it has huge challenges ahead. Nokia must continue to build out its Lumia portfolio with devices tailored to address all price points and all the markets in which it aims to compete. It must hasten its transition from Symbian to Windows Phone around the world and, with Microsoft, promote and generate excitement for the platform and new products. And it must succeed in attracting more developers to build high quality, locally relevant apps.”

RIM’s demise in 2011 has been over played by some, with the company ending the year as the fourth largest smart phone vendor and delivering annual unit growth of 5%. “There is no denying that RIM has had a tough year,” said Canalys Principal Analyst, Pete Cunningham. “But when you consider that it is transitioning to a new platform it has done well to increase volume while remaining profitable; the latter point being something that many other vendors struggle with. The appointment of Thorsten Heins as CEO will bring new energy to the company while ensuring that it does not radically deviate from its overall strategy in this transitional year. However, 2012 will become even more competitive and RIM needs BlackBerry 10 devices out there to ensure it retains its status as a major player.”

At a platform level, Android accounted for 52% of global smart phones shipments in Q4 2011, with iOS representing 23% and Symbian 12%. Android was also the leading smart phone platform by volume for the whole year, accounting for 49% of all devices shipped in 2011 and ahead of iOS with 19% share and Symbian with 16%. Collectively, Android smart phone shipments grew 149% year on year in Q4 2011 to 81.9 million units, resulting in a total of 237.8 million for the full year, up 244% on 2010. Samsung’s success and focus on Android have contributed substantially to the growth of the platform, but other vendors, such as Sony Ericsson, Huawei, Motorola, LG and particularly HTC, have also seen significant growth in their Android volumes over the course of 2011.

Research In Motion’s newly appointed chairwoman of board Barbara Stymiest vowed on Thursday that the changes sweeping the struggling smartphone vendor will continue. RIM announced late last month that company co-founders Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis were stepping down from their roles as co-CEOs and co-chairmen of the board following more than a year of investor unrest. Replacing them atop RIM’s management team was Thorsten Heins, and Barbara Stymiest was named chairwoman of the board. Heins got off to a rocky start but promised that more change was coming, and now Stymiest has gone on record making a similar vow that the shake-up at RIM isn’t over. Read on for more.

Investors including Jaguar Financial, one of several firms that had been very vocal leading up to last month’s corporate shuffle, have voiced concerns that with Balsillie and Lazaridis still on RIM’s board, the company hasn’t yet done enough to right the ship. RIM’s new chairwoman argues that RIM is is still a work in progress, and while more change is coming, she appears confident in the company’s new leadership.

“Driving change in an organization means a high-performing board and a high-quality management team,” Stymiest told Bloomberg Businessweek in an interview. “You get those two right and you can drive change quickly and effectively.”

As Heins did during a conference call with investors, Stymiest points to execution as a key area where RIM must focus. ”We can improve on product execution and Thorsten is well-positioned to do that,” she said. Execution is of the utmost importance, of course, as RIM prepares to launch new breed of devices powered by the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. The BlackBerry London is expected to launch late this fall as RIM’s first BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

Stymiest appears confident that RIM can deliver. When asked by Businessweek if she planned to personally invest further in RIM, Stymiest replied, “I’m well exposed to RIM and continue to accumulate.” Former co-CEO and co-chairman Mike Lazaridis said he plans to invest an additional $50 million in RIM stock as a vote of confidence.

Research In Motion released the first set of commercials from its new “Be Bold” advertising campaign on Thursday and while the ads feature new faces, they are nearly identical to the campaign RIM has been running for months. The Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone vendor was quick to point out that the team of four awkward superheroes that starred in an infographic RIM recently posted were not part of its upcoming advertising blitz, but perhaps they should have been. RIM’s new ads feature BlackBerry devices in real-world situations and they do a good job of showcasing key features like BBM. What the ads are not, however, is different or memorable. RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins named the company’s marketing strategy as one of the first orders of business he plans to address in his new role. With an exciting new breed of devices like the BlackBerry London on the horizon, marketing and advertising will be more important than ever for RIM as the company continues struggling to maintain its footing in key markets. A pair of Be Bold ads can be viewed after the break.

Research In Motion’s latest BlackBerry 7 devices has=ve been granted Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). FIPS certification is required before a device can be used by a government agency in either the U.S. or Canada. ”The FIPS 140-2 certification for BlackBerry 7.0 and 7.1 illustrates RIM’s continuing commitment to providing industry-leading, secure, mobile computing platforms for our customers,” said Scott Totzke, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Security at Research In Motion. “With all of the latest BlackBerry smartphones and the PlayBook tablet certified under the FIPS program, government and security-conscious customers can deploy our entire range of products with confidence.” Devices that received FIPS 140-2 certification include the BlackBerry PlayBook, the BlackBerry Bold 9900, 9790, BlackBerry Torch 9850, 9860 and 910, and the BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360, 9370 and 9380. RIM’s full press release follows after the break.

BlackBerry 7 and 7.1 OS Achieve FIPS 140-2 Certification

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced that BlackBerry® smartphones running on the powerful new BlackBerry® 7 and BlackBerry® 7.1 Operating Systems (OS) have been awarded FIPS 140-2 certification by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) 140-2 is recognized by the U.S. and Canadian governments and is required under the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA).
All BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry 7 and BlackBerry 7.1 benefit from this certification, including the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900, 9930 and 9790, BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850, 9860 and 9810, and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350, 9360, 9370 and 9380.

“The FIPS 140-2 certification for BlackBerry 7.0 and 7.1 illustrates RIM’s continuing commitment to providing industry-leading, secure, mobile computing platforms for our customers,” said Scott Totzke, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Security at Research In Motion. “With all of the latest BlackBerry smartphones and the PlayBook tablet certified under the FIPS program, government and security-conscious customers can deploy our entire range of products with confidence.”

In addition to FIPS 140-2 certification, the BlackBerry 7 OS has received Common Criteria EAL4+ certification (see announcement – November 14, 2011). The BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet has also received FIPS 140-2 validation (see announcement – July 21, 2011).

Users of Android phones are more likely to have sex on a first date and have one-night stands, according to survey results revealed by Match.com. The survey was conducted by Zoomerang and found that 62% of singles who use Android devices have had sex on a first date, compared with 57% of iPhone users and 48% of BlackBerry users. iPhone users are more likely to date someone in their workplace, with nearly a quarter of iPhone-owning singles having had an office romance in the last five years. More Android users, however, have visited an online dating site, compared to 58% of iPhone users and 50% of Blackberry users. After a first date, iPhone users will wait just one day before contacting an individual again, while Android and BlackBerry users won’t initiate contact until after the second or third date. Users of RIM’s BlackBerry platform are more likely to drink alcohol on the first date, with 67% claiming they have experienced love at first sight — perhaps due to the alcohol. The results were based on Internet surveys conducted with 1,068 Canadian singles between October 13th and 15th last year.

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We first saw the BlackBerry London make it way onto the internet a few months back, though I reported that the version that would come to market would look a bit different, and not so Porsche Design look and feel. CrackBerry got a hold of an internal slide with, surprise, a refreshed BlackBerry London that will be RIM’s first BlackBerry 10 smartphone due to launch this fall.

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Research In Motion’s newly appointed CEO Thorsten Heins said during his first day on the job that hiring a new marketing boss and revamping the company’s marketing strategy was among his first orders of business. If some of us were unsure why finding a new CMO and revamping RIM’s marketing efforts are such a priority, this new campaign should help clear things up. RIM on Monday introduced four new cartoon superheroes who will help the company spread the word about its products. Gogo Girl can save the day with her “brilliant strategy, a smile or a spatula,” Max Stone is “tough, proud and a little wild,” Justin Steele is “always ready to stick up for his friends and Trudy Foreal is “not afraid to call it as she sees it.” We’re not afraid to call it like we see it either, and we sincerely hope this new cartoon superhero campaign dies on the vine. RIM’s super infographic starring The Bold Team follows below.

UPDATE: RIM posted a note to its blog on Tuesday to clarify that The Bold Team is not a part of its new advertising campaign.

[Via Mobilesyrup]

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The bathroom is a popular place to use a mobile phone according to the results of a new study. ”The writing is on the stall,” says Nicole Burdette of 11mark, the firm that conducted the survey. ”This study confirms what we all know – that the last private place is no longer private. And, that the ‘mobile-everywhere’ phenomenon is flushing out a host of new opportunities for savvy communicators.” 63% of those surveyed said they have initiated a phone call while using the bathroom and 38% have surfed the Internet. Android owners admitted using their smartphones in the bathroom more than any other group of smartphone users; 87% of the Android users responding to the survey said they have used a phone in the bathroom while 84% of BlackBerry users and 77% of iPhone users admitted the same. The full press release for “IT in the Toilet” follows after the break.

New IT in the Toilet Study Shows Americans Aren’t Spending Alone Time Alone

Study Highlights Americans’ Habits Behind Closed Stalls

ALEXANDRIA, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Three-fourths of Americans with mobile phones report they use their phones in the bathroom, according to a new study by 11mark, a new integrated marketing agency. Americans are texting, emailing, and yes – as you may have heard – talking on the phone in the bathroom. Approximately one quarter of Americans report they don’t go into the bathroom without their phone. The new report, “IT in the Toilet,” uses the “bathroom benchmark” to examine just how connected we have become.

The survey of 1,000 Americans reveals that neither men nor women are going to the bathroom alone today – 74 percent of men and 76 percent of women report they have used their mobile phone in the bathroom. 63 percent report they have answered a phone call, and 41 percent have initiated a phone call. Many (67 percent) have read a text, and 38 percent have surfed the Internet. Men are a bit more attached, however, with 30 percent reporting, “I don’t go to the bathroom without my mobile phone,” versus 20 percent of women. Men also work more from the bathroom – 20 percent say they have participated in work-related calls versus 13 percent of their female colleagues.

Droid users are slightly more likely to use their phones in the bathroom overall; 87 percent have used their phone while indisposed, versus 84 percent of BlackBerry users and 77 percent of iPhone users. BlackBerry users are most likely to answer a call in the bathroom. 75 percent of BlackBerry users report they have done so, versus 67 percent of Droid and 60 percent of iPhone users. But, Droid and iPhone users are more likely to browse a social network or use an app (in the bathroom) than their BlackBerry colleagues.

As expected, Gen Y respondents are the heaviest IT in the toilet users. Ninety-one percent use their phone in the bathroom, but older generations are not far behind. Eighty percent of Gen X report they use the phone in the bathroom, as well as 65 percent of Boomers, and 47 percent of the Silent Generation (guess they are no longer silent.)

Americans are using apps to connect to their favorite content, quickly – 59 percent of Gen Y, 43 percent of Gen X, and 22 percent of Boomers have used an app in the bathroom. While online, they are doing more than just surfing; 16 percent of Gen Y report they have made an online purchase while in the bathroom. iPhone users are particularly likely to browse and buy in the bathroom – 22 percent have made a purchase, versus 10 percent of Americans with mobile phones overall.

“The writing is on the stall,” says Nicole Burdette, principal, 11mark. “This study confirms what we all know – that the last private place is no longer private. And, that the ‘mobile-everywhere’ phenomenon is flushing out a host of new opportunities for savvy communicators.”

The “IT in the Toilet” study is based on an online survey of 1,000 Americans with mobile phones in October 2011. To learn more and download the full free report, please visithttp://www.11mark.com/IT-in-the-Toilet.

Former Research In Motion co-CEO and co-Chairman Mike Lazaridis said in a recent interview that he had been planning to step down from his role at the helm of the company for several years. While speaking with The Record, Lazaridis confessed that he had been planning to relinquish his co-CEO role for several years leading up to January 22nd when RIM announced that Lazaridis and co-CEO Jim Balsillie were stepping down. Lazaridis said in the interview that he had been grooming new CEO Thorsten Heins for the CEO position since he was first hired in 2007, but the former chief did not explain why he waited so long to step down while RIM’s stock plummeted and investors clamored for new leadership. Though Lazaridis is no longer RIM’s top executive, he will continue to play an active role on the company’s board. He also said he plans to purchase an additional $50 million in RIM stock. ”This company has a strong balance sheet of $1.5 billion,” Lazaridis said. “It has strong sales of over $5 billion a quarter. This is a strong organization with a strong global brand, an iconic product and a strong future.”

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Although Apple outsold all Android vendors in the fourth quarter, the Cupertino-based company’s share of mobile internet usage is reportedly beginning to slide. An analysis of last year’s Internet usage shows that in the United States, the proportion of Android mobile web visitors overtook Apple users by the end of the year, according to 51Degrees.mobi. The share of Apple’s iOS web traffic in December fell to 34.1%, while Android increased to 36.6%. In Europe, Apple remained ahead with 42.6% however, despite an increase in Android traffic that pushed the platform to 25.5% by the end of 2011. RIM’s BlackBerry devices remained stable in both regions with roughly 9% of all mobile web usage. “The battle for mobile operating system dominance is far from over”, said 51Degrees.mobi CEO James Rosewell. “Apple experienced record sales of iPad2 and iPhone devices, yet its share of mobile web traffic declined in the US and Europe – indicating just how many more Android based products were used online in the same period.” The firm’s full press release follows after the break.

Decline in Apple share of mobile internet usage shows battle to dominate mobile phones and tablets is far from over

Apple’s dominance of mobile web traffic appears to be fading

Android traffic now ahead in the US; Apple still leads in the UK

BlackBerry share of web traffic remains stable

Nokia starting to slide in India

51Degrees.mobi, the leading provider of device detection and web optimisation solutions, has today published an analysis of the mobile devices its online partners detected browsing the internet last year.

The 51Degrees.mobi Mobile Web Trends 2011 white paper shows that the proportion of mobile web visitors in the USA with Android devices overtook Apple users by the end of the year. The share of Apple iOS web traffic in December 2011 fell to 34.1% in the US, while Android increased to 36.6%.

In Europe, Apple remained ahead with 42.6% of mobile web visits despite an increase in Android usage to 25.5% by the end of 2011.

Figures for RIM’s BlackBerry OS were stable in the USA and Europe throughout the second half of 2011, varying by just a fraction of a percentage point. Both regions saw BlackBerry usage remain at around 9% of all mobile web traffic.

Unlike the mobile market in Europe and the USA, mobile phone use in India has been dominated by Nokia and its Symbian operating system for several years. Nokia mobile web visits fell in H2 2011 from 57.3% of the total figure to 50.6% by the end of the year.

The data has been collated from customers who use 51Degrees.mobi free and premium device detection services.

“The battle for mobile operating system dominance is far from over”, said 51Degrees.mobi CEO James Rosewell. “Apple experienced record sales of iPad2 and iPhone devices, yet its share of mobile web traffic declined in the US and Europe – indicating just how many more Android based products were used online in the same period.”