Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iOS Surpasses OS X in Share of U.S. Web Traffic

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,480
30,707



chitika_ios_mac_share.jpg



Analytics firm Chitika today released a report showing that by its metrics iOS has now surpassed OS X in overall web traffic share in the United States. Chitika's methodology involves an analysis of browser user agents for hundreds of millions of ad impressions across its expansive network.
To quantify this study, Chitika Insights analyzed several data sets composed of a series of US traffic taken from August 2011 to February 2012 out of the Chitika Ad Network (covering hundreds of millions of ad impressions). The user agents of individual impressions were then aggregated to determine relative overall share of the different operating systems.
Click to expand...
Chitika's results show that iOS and OS X have seen their shares of web traffic quickly converge between September and December of last year, with the two platforms running neck-and-neck since that time.
iOS has been posting regular gains, and has experienced an overall growth of nearly 50%, whereas OS X has seen its market share decline by 25% since a high point in September. February marks the first point where a reversal in position can be seen in the respective operating systems. iOS passes Mac OS with 8.15% of all web traffic, whereas Mac OS only sees 7.96%.
Click to expand...
Chitika theorizes that the decline in OS X share may be due to either Apple customers choosing to purchase iOS devices instead of Macs or simply a general increase in mobile usage that is overwhelming growth in traditional platforms such as OS X. Given Apple's continued record Mac sales over the past several quarters, the latter explanation seems to be the more likely one.

Chitika's results appear to be supported by worldwide data from Net Applications, which shows that desktop share outweighs mobile and tablet usage by a roughly 10:1 margin. With Apple holding only 6% of the desktop share but over 50% of the mobile and tablet share, iOS and OS X do appear to be fairly close in their shares of the overall market.

Article Link: iOS Surpasses OS X in Share of U.S. Web Traffic
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/10/ios-surpasses-os-x-in-share-of-u-s-web-traffic/
*LTD*

*LTD*

macrumors G4
Feb 5, 2009
10,703
1
Canada
We're seeing the future, folks.

In any case, though, Apple sells a great deal more iOS devices than Macs.
 
chrmjenkins

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
I would venture that a fair amount of desktop users have an Adblock feature, which could slightly distort this metric.
 
Lesser Evets

Lesser Evets

macrumors 68040
Jan 7, 2006
3,527
1,294
It was going to happen sometime.

OSX will probably die by the time it goes beyond 10.9, and that will be fine. iOS is a leaner OS which will carry the portables into the forefront of the market. As the iPads become more powerful over the next half-decade, OSX computer sales will diminish drastically since most people won't need them.
 
Amazing Iceman

Amazing Iceman

macrumors 603
Nov 8, 2008
5,284
4,030
Florida, U.S.A.
This only means that people prefer to do most of their browsing while sitting on a couch, or laying in bed rather than sitting on a desk.

I also wonder if this chart considers only HTTP traffic (from a web Browser), or Internet traffic in general (Email, Netflix, iTunes Downloads and Streaming, App Downloads, Sync to iCloud, Sync to Dropbox, Web Browsing, etc.).

I find myself spending less time sitting in front of my Mac whenever it's more convenient to use my iPad.
 
Max E Verde

Max E Verde

macrumors regular
Jan 12, 2005
227
46
New Jersey
Amazing Iceman said:
This only means that people prefer to do most of their browsing while sitting on a couch, or laying in bed rather than sitting on a desk.

I also wonder if this chart considers only HTTP traffic (from a web Browser), or Internet traffic in general (Email, Netflix, iTunes Downloads and Streaming, App Downloads, Sync to iCloud, Sync to Dropbox, Web Browsing, etc.).

I find myself spending less time sitting in front of my Mac whenever it's more convenient to use my iPad.
Click to expand...

Same here. I use my Mac less and less since I got my iPad. Heck I am typing this within Twitter for iPad. Doesn't mean my Mac isn't important. I still use it for gaming, coding and using Creative Pro apps. And if I have to sit at a desk I'd rather browse the web on my Mac than my iPad.
 
G

gumblecosby

macrumors 6502
Jun 22, 2010
298
6
Considering many iOS devices are tied to windows machines and how many iOS devices are sold, I'm surprised its only surpassed mac os x now. This comparison is chalk and cheese.
 
skellener

skellener

macrumors 68000
Jun 23, 2003
1,786
543
So. Cal.
Why would this surprise anyone?

Of course a device that is always connected and in your pocket and with you almost every minute of the day will be used more than a large device that needs Wifi or a hard-wire to connect and may or may not be "On" at any given time.
 
Y

Yamcha

macrumors 68000
Mar 6, 2008
1,825
158
I think the reason iOS surpassed Mac OS is probably due to the fact that many people take their iOS devices everywhere they go, even while they work..

I'm not entirely convinced that any iOS device can become a desktop replacement..
 
E

Exhale

macrumors 6502a
Sep 20, 2011
512
145
Amazing Iceman said:
This only means that people prefer to do most of their browsing while sitting on a couch, or laying in bed rather than sitting on a desk.
Click to expand...
Uh, no.
Theres about 10x as many (very loose guess) iOS devices, but it still only barely equals MacOS in web traffic.
applesith said:
Honestly, that's negligible.
Click to expand...
You'd be surprised. People that use adblockers also tend to spend more time on the web - ergo making them more statistically relevant.

I go through anything between 1000 to 4000 pages a day, and I'm very far from alone on that. Casual browsers might go through a few dozen at best.
 
Last edited:
RoelJuun

RoelJuun

macrumors 6502
Aug 31, 2010
449
207
Netherlands
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

From now on I'm waiting till the day it is the other way around again while iOS keeps growing.
 
Shrink

Shrink

macrumors G3
Feb 26, 2011
8,929
1,727
New England, USA
chrmjenkins said:
I would venture that a fair amount of desktop users have an Adblock feature, which could slightly distort this metric.
Click to expand...

Add laptops (notebooks?) into that number, and the distortion might be more than slight.

As someone said above, I cannot imagine any reason why anyone wouldn't have an adblocker.
 
Awfisch

Awfisch

macrumors regular
Feb 1, 2011
101
49
Lesser Evets said:
It was going to happen sometime.

OSX will probably die by the time it goes beyond 10.9, and that will be fine. iOS is a leaner OS which will carry the portables into the forefront of the market. As the iPads become more powerful over the next half-decade, OSX computer sales will diminish drastically since most people won't need them.
Click to expand...

OSX won't be dying anytime soon. First of all, iOS deep down is OSX, and iOS will never completely take over, although it may be merged with OSX in the future.
 
Last edited:
F

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,107
1,345
Silicon Valley
Lesser Evets said:
It was going to happen sometime.

OSX will probably die by the time it goes beyond 10.9, and that will be fine. iOS is a leaner OS which will carry the portables into the forefront of the market. As the iPads become more powerful over the next half-decade, OSX computer sales will diminish drastically since most people won't need them.
Click to expand...

Mac OS X is needed to support all the tools it takes to develop iOS apps. That won't be going away for a long time. Apple won't want developers to have to use Windows PCs to develop apps, and the security design of iOS won't let all the Xcode tools run there.
 
CylonGlitch

CylonGlitch

macrumors 68030
Jul 7, 2009
2,956
268
Nashville
Remember that iOS is only seeing HALF of the internet; and it can never be successful because it doesn't have FLASH.

(sorry, I had to say it.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom