QAim: Giants, You Need to Cultivate Your Ecosystem Fast

BARCELONA, Spain, February 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Updated Research and Forecast for Mobile Platform Market Shares

Over the past several years, Finland's and the world's leading Customer Experience Management measurement and analysis supplier for mobile services, QAim Ltd, has been monitoring the different trends in the mobile market. Prior to MWC in Barcelona, it was time to revisit our research on mobile platform market shares from the last autumn and discover if our forecast was becoming a reality.

The previous research was carried out in October by using a sample of over 58 million mobile page loads from Nordic content services between week 4 and week 41 of 2010. The research analysed actual mobile traffic collected by CEM4Mobile (http://www.cem4mobile.com) analytics. The survey was done and published because reliable market data is essential for companies developing and distributing mobile services. Further to this, the insight shed light on how different mobile platforms encourage people to use mobile services with their mobile handset.

Last autumn we forecasted Android to overtake Apple iOS in May 2011 and Symbian in August 2011. Android had already overtaken Sony Ericsson at the end of May and the Nokia Series 30 - 40 operating systems in early July 2010.

The changes in operating system market shares

The update was based on 97 million transaction sample of mobile page loads from the week 4 / 2010 to week 5 / 2011. The research revealed that the operating system market shares have evolved during the last year as follows:

    
    Operating System  Week 4 / 2010 Week 41 / 2010 Week 5 / 2011 Change
 
    Symbian OS        47.91%        45.43%         43.31%         - 9.6%
    Apple iOS         31.92%        27.80%         26.03%        - 18.6%
    Android OS         0.83%         9.85%         16.33%      +1.867.5%
    Nokia OS (S30-40)  4.47%         4.97%          5.13%         +14.8%
    SonyEricsson OS    7.90%         4.10%          2.54%         -67.9%
    Samsung OS      Not measured     1.97%          2.07%             -
    Windows Mobile  OS 2.31%         1.26%          0.80%         -65.4%

"The results show that all platforms except Nokia Series 30-40 are losing market share to Android, and against all the odds Symbian slower than Apple iOS," said QAim's Managing Director Janne Aalto who carried out the research. "As predicted, Android shows a rocketing rise in popularity among active mobile browser users whereas Microsoft Mobile OS seems to be fading away," Aalto continued.

Updated forecast: As predicted already in October, Android will overtake iOS in May and Symbian in August 2011

The updated forecast was made based on the trend in the last 15 weeks, i.e., the page loads from weeks 42 - 5. The average percentage changes for this period were as follows:

    
    Operating system        Change

    Android OS              +3.42%
    Nokia OS (S30-40)       +0.36%
    Samsung OS              +0.43%
    Apple iOS               -0.22%
    Symbian OS              -0.36%
    SonyEricsson OS         -2.76%
    Windows Mobile OS       -3.03%

If this trend continues unchanged, Android overtakes iOS in May 2011 and Symbian by the end of August 2011 in market shares, precisely as predicted. However, our forecast last autumn indicated moderate uptake for iOS and Symbian which have now turned slightly downhill. Android's growth has continued on a very steep curve as predicted. Over the period from week 42 - 5 the service usage grew by 32.5% which builds on the explosive growth that started in late 2009.

"We have been closely following the impact of Nokia's new handsets, as well as Android and iOS based tablets entering the marketplace. Now we see that Nokia has been able to fight back and slow the downhill trend, but at the same time we have not seen a great impact from the tablets yet, which will be inevitable. The recently announced alliance between Nokia and Microsoft for Windows Mobile looks challenging indeed and the giants really need to cultivate their selected ecosystem fast," says Aalto.

CEM4Mobile product family

CEM4Mobile (http://www.cem4mobile.com) is an innovative mobile analytics product with strong focus on Customer Experience Management. The offering has been particularly designed for companies providing mobile content and Value Added Services cross all the industry verticals. CEM4Mobile Analytics enable service providers to measure and analyse interactions between end-users and mobile services, optimise their business and ensure successful customer relations. CEM4Mobile Ranking is a tool for measuring and standardising mobile audience measurement on a national level. CEM4Mobile Metrics maintains extensive data warehouse enabling visibility and market insight for understanding the trends and dynamics of the mobile content market.

QAim Oy is a Finnish world-class expert in managing usage and the customer experience for mobile content services. QAim provides software solutions and services for companies large and small which develop or produce mobile services. QAim's CEM4Mobile offering enables companies providing mobile services to measure and analyse data on the interaction between end users and mobile services, optimise their business and ensure successful customer relations.

More information

    
    about QAim Ltd and the CEM4Mobile solution can be requested at:
    MWC Barcelona, stand 4.1HS01
    QAim Ltd
    Kappelitie 6 A
    02200 Espoo, Finland
    sales@qaimgroup.com
    tel: +358(0)9-689-884-88