Global internet usage through mobile devices -- excluding tablets -- has almost doubled to 8.5% in January 2012 from 4.3% last year according to free web analytics company StatCounter.

"While global internet usage through mobiles is still under 10%, the pace of growth is remarkable," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter.

StatCounter has also announced that new stats regarding mobile vendors are now available on its Global Stats website. The firm has been compiling and refining these stats for some time and has now made the beta project public.

Based on initial research covering all traffic to the StatCounter network, Nokia leads worldwide, most probably driven by its dominance in India. Apple is second globally but leads the USA and UK markets. In the UK RIM is second only to Apple.

"Following repeated requests, we've decided to make our new mobile vendor stats publicly available," commented Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter. "As the mobile space is constantly evolving, we keep our detection under constant review."