A study with approximately 300 million Canadian and U.S. Internet impressions found Microsoft's mobile operating system topped BlackBerry in Web traffic.

According to the Chitika Insights report "Smartphone Usage Update: Windows Phone Takes Third Place Behind iOS, Android," Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile operating system generated the third-largest share in Web traffic among all rival smartphone platforms in North America. With Windows Phone claiming third place, BlackBerry fell to fourth place. Chitika Insights noted BlackBerry's fourth place finish exhibited a decline over several months.

The rise for Windows Phone was not necessarily because of an increase of the Microsoft mobile platform's adoption. Based on Chitika Insights' figures, Windows Phone remained "largely flat" from February through April with at least 1 percent market share. Windows Phone managed third place because of BlackBerry's "steady" decline during the same time period.

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The report correlated with comScore's March data on top smartphone platforms, which had Windows Phone defeat BlackBerry for third place by 0.1 percentage points. The comScore data, however, was based on only U.S. estimates.

It is unlikely BlackBerry will encounter a surge for at least third place because the Canada-based company is shifting focus to emerging markets. BlackBerry recently launched a new device with the low-cost BlackBerry Z3, which will retail for less than $200. The BlackBerry Z3 is the first phone launched under new CEO John Chen, who took the role in late 2013. The new smartphone will eventually reach other emerging markets, such as India, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam.

"If the market doesn't receive this product well, then we definitely have some negative issues to deal with," Chen said during the Jakarta, Indonesia, launch event.

Whereas Windows Phone improved to third place, Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems continued to generate the most Web traffic.

"While Microsoft has worked hard to make Windows Phone a competitive third mobile OS from a functionality standpoint, the operating system's flat rate of growth over the past several months makes it likely that Apple and Google's offerings will remain the frontrunners stateside for the foreseeable future," the report said.

According to the report, iOS and Android commanded 97.6 percent of the joint Canadian and U.S. market share. iOS accounted for 53.1 percent while Android represented 44.5 percent of the data retrieved by web traffic.

The Chitika Insights report included data between Feb. 1 and April 30. Smartphone usage market share figures were from online ad impressions between April 1-30. The 300 million Canadian and U.S. web impressions were measured, however, by page views and not unique visitors.

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