Mobile operating systems are becoming just as important to consumers and enterprises as their desktop brethren and the latest data from The Nielsen Company suggests both Apple and RIM better keep the pedal to the metal.
As Enterprise Mobile Today reports, Apple’s iOS and RIM’s BlackBerry OS shared to the top spot among mobile operating systems in use. But Android is closing fast and everyone’s still waiting to see if and how well the market embraces Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform.
With worldwide smartphone sales expected to surge 55 percent year-over-year through 2012, according to market researcher IDC, all the leading vendors are racing to capture both the smartphone upgrade crowd as well as those consumers making the switch from traditional handsets to smartphones.
A new study from The Nielsen Company this week found that 29.7 percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers are running full operating systems and that the vast majority are using devices powered by either Apple’s iOS or RIM’s BlackBerry mobile operating system.
While that’s good news for both companies right now, the report indicates that BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) will likely have its hands full fending off the growing threat of Android-based smartphones in the near future.
