Apple's iOS operating system continues to dominate mobile Internet access and now accounts for 61.64 of worldwide mobile web traffic, a 6.9 percent month-over-month increase, according to new data published by web analytics firm Net Applications. Although iOS remains far ahead of Google's rival Android at 18.9 percent, Android access also experienced a jump in October, increasing 2.64 percentage points over September and leapfrogging Java ME (12.84 percent, down 5.7 percentage points) in the process.

Symbian remains a distant fourth, representing 3.48 percent of global mobile web access in October, down from 6.12 percent a month earlier. Research In Motion's BlackBerry also continues to fall off pace, coming in at 2.48 percent in October compared to 3.29 percent in September.

The spike in iOS web traffic coincides with the mid-October release of Apple's iOS 5 platform update and the launch of its iPhone 4S device. Consumers purchased 4 million iPhone 4S units in its first weekend on sale.

By 2015, more U.S. Internet users will access the web via mobile devices than PCs or other wireline channels according to a recent forecast issued by research firm IDC. The number of mobile web users is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.6 percent between 2010 and 2015, bolstered by increasing smartphone penetration and sales of tablets like the iPad--IDC adds that PC-based web access across the U.S. will first stagnate then slowly decline, with Western Europe and Japan following the same trend.