BlackBerry OS overtook Apple’s iOS for the first time in the US in November in terms of mobile internet usage according to web analytics company, StatCounter (http://www.statcounter.com). The company’s research arm, StatCounter Global Stats, finds that for the first time in the US BlackBerry OS at 34.3% overtook Apple’s iOS which recorded 33% in November.

Google’s Android is rapidly gaining and has almost tripled internet market share from 8.2% last November to 23.8% this year, according to the research group. Apple’s iOS has fallen from 51.9% to 33% over the same period, according to Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter. He added that, if current trends continue, BlackBerry and Android combined are on course to become twice the size of iOS as regards mobile Internet usage in the next year.

Commenting on Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 he said that it was not yet registering significantly in terms of internet usage but would be interesting to observe over the next year. BlackBerry’s US lead is not replicated in terms of worldwide share according to the StatCounter data. Globally Symbian OS leads with 31.9% followed by iOS (21.9%), BlackBerry OS (19.3%)
and Android (11.6%).

Note that StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected by StatCounter on a sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month collected from across the StatCounter network of more than three million web sites.