The share of Web traffic from mobile devices increased 110% in North America over the past year and 148% globally, according to a new
study by Quantcast. While still only a small fraction of overall Web traffic (1.3% of all North American pageviews in December),
the Internet analytics and advertising firm says accelerating development in devices, operating systems and browsers is driving rapid growth.
While Apple easily commands the largest share
of mobile page views at about 60%, Quantcast points out that its dominance is being eroded by emerging competitors in the smartphone market. Most notable is the Motorola Droid, which captured almost
4% share in its first full month, overtaking the Palm Pre. The Droid has also helped Google's Android operating system surpass the BlackBerry OS with a 12% share of North American mobile Web traffic.
In 2010, Quantcast expects mobile's share of page views in North America to increase a full percentage point to 2.3%. Globally, mobile's share will increase from 0.95% to over 1.8%. A host of new
devices from manufacturers Motorola, HTC and BlackBerry will fuel that growth this year.
Quantcast says it tracks more than 200 billion requests for Internet content each month. --Mark
Walsh