Sensobi Releases Data On Users BlackBerry OS Versions

While at DevCon RIM was touting the fact that 75% of the 1.5 million a day app downloads in App World are done by devices with BlackBerry OS 5.0+ devices. Sensobi was kind enough to more or less confirm that with a little less rosy numbers showing that almost 33% of their BlackBerry app users are still using OS 4.6.x which is CRAZY. From August 27th to September 27th, 2010 this was their app user landscape:

bb-os-mix-sep-2010 

As you can see OS 4.6 still has a large chunk in there with OS 4.5 having a much smaller share than I would expect. The other shocking thing was the lack of real OS fragmentation beyond the two top OS versions.They support over 96% of their users if their apps works on OS 5.x and 4.6.x.

Here was their summary of their data that they posted this week and last:

  1. BlackBerry OS 5.0 (64%) and 4.6 (32%) remain the main BlackBerry operating system platforms today
  2. Low BlackBerry operating system fragmentation in the market, with both operating systems having a combined 96% share
  3. OS 6.0 will take 6-9 months to gain popularity, if past adoption rates are any indicator of the future
  4. Firms building new BlackBerry apps today should aim to build for OS 5.0+ at a minimum, and OS 4.6+ if at all possible
  5. Stop supporting OS 4.2-4.3: hardly anyone uses it anymore

What do you think of these data points? Do you see OS 4.6 disappearing soon since it really aging and all devices should have 5.0 at least?

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