Apple iOS has overtaken Nokia’s Symbian in share of mobile phones and connected devices across five leading European markets (EU5) — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
Digital world tracker comScore said in its overview of the EU5 market that in the three month average period ending in August 2011, 91.4 million mobile subscribers across the EU5 reported using smartphones, up 46% from last year.
Although Symbian continues to have the largest share of the smartphone market, its audience among all mobile and connected devices in current use was recently surpassed by the Apple iOS audience.
The iOS platform accounts for 30.5% of all mobile and connected devices in use in the EU5, driven by the popularity of the iPad and iPod Touch. Symbian ranks second, accounting for 28.7% of all devices in use, followed by the Google Android platform at 23.5%, revealed comScore.
Cross-platform digital media consumption is increasing in the EU5, buoyed by the growth in adoption of smartphones, tablets and other non-computer web-enabled devices, collectively termed "connected devices". In August 2011, these devices drove 4.6% of total digital traffic in the EU5, fuelled primarily by the use of smartphones, said comScore.
comScore vice-president for Mobile in Europe Jeremy Copp said while the increasing adoption of smartphones in the EU5 has been contributing to the rapid growth of mobile media consumption, tablets and other connected devices are aslo playing an increasing role.
Copp added, "With more options available for consuming digital media on the go than ever before, many users now access online content from multiple platforms throughout the day. This media fragmentation has made it more important than ever for advertisers and publishers to take a holistic view of audience measurement to effectively reach their audiences."
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