Apple dislodged Nokia in January for the first time as the most popular mobile vendor in terms of global internet usage, according to new mobile research from StatCounter, the independent website analytics company. Samsung also climbed ahead of Nokia to take second place behind Apple on a worldwide basis.

StatCounter’s research arm StatCounter Global Stats finds that in January 2013 Apple led globally for the first time in terms of internet usage with 25.86%, ahead of Samsung (22.69%) and Nokia (22.15%).

“It’s good and bad news for Apple,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “Apple has been handed the number one spot despite its falling usage share. A decline in Nokia usage from January 2012 to January 2013 means the Finnish company ceded the top spot to Apple.”

He added, “Samsung, in contrast to Apple, has seen an increase in its usage share since January 2012.”

According to StatCounter data, Apple’s worldwide internet usage share fell from 28.67% in January 2012 to 25.86% in the same month this year. Samsung rose from 14.84% to 22.69% over the same period. Nokia fell from 37.67% to 22.15%.

(Individual country stats available at http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_vendor-ww-monthly-201201-201301)

StatCounter, one of the largest web analytics firms in the world, is used by companies, bloggers, charities and anyone who wants to measure activity on their website. Key features include ease of use, independence and the fact that website data can be viewed in real time.

StatCounter Global Stats data is based on over 15 billion page views per month to the StatCounter network of more than three million websites.

StatCounter (http://statcounter.com/) provides independent and free website stats including search terms used to find the site and stats on downloads e.g. brochures or price lists.

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Editors’ Notes:

1. Mobile stats for Apple include iPhone and iPod Touch.

2. StatCounter defines a mobile device as a pocket-sized computing device, typically having a display screen with touch input or a miniature keyboard.This excludes tablets such as the iPad which, while portable, are not considered mobile according to this definition.