However, the market figures do represent a new way that NetMarketshare has adopted to calculate market share for Apple. "In order to more accurately describe usage share for Apple devices, the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad are now being grouped under their common operating system iOS," .

"When these devices are combined, they have over one percent of global browsing share, which is now higher than Linux," it said.

Information at the research firm's website shows iOS steadily gaining browser market share since October 2009, when its share was 0.44 percent, to last month, when its share was 1.13 percent. Linux's share, on the other hand, reached its lowest point over the same period, 0.85 percent.

Although devices running Google's operating system, Android, remain well behind iOS with a 0.20 percent share, they continue to show impressive growth in mobile web consumption. "Android continues to put in a powerful performance as measured by the share of mobile web consumption attributable to devices running Google's operating system," reports , which analyzes online audiences for marketers.

"In August," it added, "Android took share from every corner of the market, putting in its best month share gain since November 2009."