The launch of the iPhone 4 triggered the single largest increase in the iPhone's web share since it launched, Net Applications said today. Use of iPhones jumped from 0.59 percent in June to 0.7 percent in July, or an 18.6 increase in the number of owners in just one month. The growth rate also debunked some beliefs about Android as Google's OS grew at just half the pace.
As iPhone share was flat between May and June, the July results hinted at a tremendous level of pent-up demand, the analytics group said. Flat or slight declines in share aren't uncommon for iPhone share as a whole, as customers often hold off once a new iPhone is announced in June. Motorola's Droid X also launched in mid-July, but its launch numbers don't appear to have been large enough to boost Android as a whole.
Microsoft had its own rare gains at the same time. Windows 7's 175 million copies sold have already helped it pass Vista in online share, at 14.46 percent to the 2007 software's 14.34 percent; XP is declining, but still larger at 61.87 percent. Internet Explorer also saw only its second gain in browser market share since NetApplications began tracking, as it bounced up to 60.74 percent. Most of its share came at the expense of Firefox, which lost almost an entire point and sank to 22.91 percent.
Safari and Opera were given a lift by new versions; Safari reached a new high in the current system at 5.09 percent, and Opera moved up to 2.45 percent. Chrome was down slightly to 7.16 percent.
Source: electronista
