iPhone and iPad Dominate Mobile Web Share Throughout Holidays

MacRumors · Jan 2, 2014

Apple's iPhone was the only smartphone to gain mobile web traffic share in North America during the holidays, according to a new report from analytics firm Chitika, suggesting that the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c were popular with consumers over the holiday season.

The iPhone saw a 1.8 percent jump in web traffic from the period between December 20 and December 29, while other smartphone manufacturers experienced no gains or a slight loss in traffic share. Overall, the iPhone has a 54.3 percent share of total mobile web traffic, far above its closest competitor Samsung, which has a 23.7 percent share.

Despite its minor share loss, the iPad remains the most popular tablet, comprising 76.1 percent of all mobile web traffic in North America. Apple's closest competitor, Amazon, has a 9.4 percent share, while Microsoft and Samsung come in at 2.3 and 5.9 percent.

Mobile web traffic usage numbers have changed little over the course of the last year, with iOS devices continuing to dominate Android devices. In a report from late 2012, Chitika noted that iOS had an overall usage share of 67 percent, while Android had a 33 percent share.

Apple's mobile web traffic dominance was also confirmed by a recent report from IBM, indicating the majority of online shopping from mobile devices during the Christmas holiday was done by iOS users rather than Android users. 23 percent of total online sales on Christmas in the U.S. were made from iOS devices, while just 4.6 percent were made from Android devices.

To gather its data, Chitika used its Chitika network ad impressions, analyzing data from millions of smartphone and tablet users in both the United States and Canada. An ad impression was measured each time an individual user loaded a page containing Chitika ad code, giving an impression of overall web usage rather than a measurement of unique users.

Article Link: iPhone and iPad Dominate Mobile Web Share Throughout Holidays

2457282 · Jan 2, 2014

it is always amazing that although Android continues to lead in number of devices sold, the web traffic share is so skewed towards iOS. Good for Apple.

jctech · Jan 2, 2014

Apple does it again

Apple once again proves that it has no competition! :apple:

Piggie · Jan 2, 2014

jctech said:
Apple once again proves that it has no competition!

This is worldwide is it?

MacOG728893 · Jan 2, 2014

What does this actually mean? More so, what significance does this have?

Renzatic · Jan 2, 2014

MacOG728893 said:
What does this actually mean? More so, what significance does this have?

It means the vast majority of people messing around the internet with their mobile phones are doing so on Apple hardware.

And the significance? I guess it means if you're on an Android phone, you're not using the internet all that much. I have no idea why.

Xenomorph · Jan 2, 2014

Cuban Missles said:
it is always amazing that although Android continues to lead in number of devices sold, the web traffic share is so skewed towards iOS. Good for Apple.

Have you ever done anything on an Android device? Most web browsers are a pain to use, with terrible zoom and laggy scrolling. I usually try to find a dedicated app for everything to avoid using the web browser.

iOS devices are a treat to use, so just "doing stuff" is in itself a reward.

samcraig · Jan 2, 2014

Xenomorph said:
Have you ever done anything on an Android device? Most web browsers are a pain to use, with terrible zoom and laggy scrolling. I usually try to find a dedicated app for everything to avoid using the web browser.

iOS devices are a treat to use, so just "doing stuff" is in itself a reward.

Oh yeah. You are 100% correct.

Oh wait - I find surfing on my Nexus 7 and GS4 (as well as my iOS devices) to all be the same "pleasurable" experience.

No idea what Android browsers you're using.. But chrome and firefox has always been great for me.

LagunaSol · Jan 2, 2014

Apparently Google's strategy of giving stuff away for free isn't working to increase their stranglehold on the Web.

Macist · Jan 2, 2014

People buy iPhones because they want a smartphone they'll use the hell out of.

SOME people buy Android as a top-end smartphone but many just get them because the phone on some cheap deal just happened to be Android.

With Tablets it's even worse: 'Wow, I got this Android tablet - it was so much cheaper than iPad!'. Five minutes later it's shoved in the junk drawer while people are using their iPads to death.

Rogifan · Jan 2, 2014

What exactly do they mean by Google? Are those Nexus devices?

micropig · Jan 2, 2014

the iPhone has a 54.3 percent share of total mobile web traffic

the iPad remains the most popular tablet, comprising 76.1 percent of all mobile web traffic

The wording is a little ambiguous here...these two numbers are specific to phones/tablets, right?

a.coward · Jan 2, 2014

Ad Blocking Software

Seeing the numbers are based on ad impressions, I wonder how much
of an impact the availability of ad blocking plugins (e.g Adblock Plus)
on Android devices running Chrome has on the numbers.

Amazing Iceman · Jan 2, 2014

Cuban Missles said:
it is always amazing that although Android continues to lead in number of devices sold, the web traffic share is so skewed towards iOS. Good for Apple.

One thing is to buy a device and another one to actually use it.
In my case, my iPad is my most used device, followed by my iPhone and then my MacBook Pro and AppleTV.

TWSS37 · Jan 2, 2014

Xenomorph said:
Have you ever done anything on an Android device? Most web browsers are a pain to use, with terrible zoom and laggy scrolling. I usually try to find a dedicated app for everything to avoid using the web browser.

iOS devices are a treat to use, so just "doing stuff" is in itself a reward.

Have you? Chrome on Android is about as flawless a mobile browser as you could ask for.

As to your last comment... wow.

----------

Macist said:
People buy iPhones because they want a smartphone they'll use the hell out of.

SOME people buy Android as a top-end smartphone but many just get them because the phone on some cheap deal just happened to be Android.

With Tablets it's even worse: 'Wow, I got this Android tablet - it was no much cheaper than iPad!'. Five minutes later it's shoved in the junk drawer while people are using their iPads to death.

Has anyone said this in reality or do we just regurgitate what we read on fan sites? Anyone I have ever known who has used a Nexus tablet device has been nothing but completely satisfied with it.

Tiger8 · Jan 2, 2014

When I first got the iPad I kinda thought I blew $599...

18 months later, not only did it become my primary internet device, I couldn't even justify buying a new Laptop last holidays regardless of the massive deals. I can totally see how people can have multiple devices, but use the iDevice as their primary internet browser.

N64 · Jan 2, 2014

Nice job Apple. iPhone dominates. Too bad you can't put some of your effort into Mavericks. I've had it with this horrible memory management (that improved memory management was BS) and general sluggishness. When my computer wakes up, it's going to be running Mountain Lion.

DTphonehome · Jan 2, 2014

Numbers like this bode well for Apple's future marketshare growth... while Samsung/Google may be selling a lot of devices due to low price, ultimately they aren't being used, which doesn't reflect well on their customer satisfaction... when it comes time to buy a new device, they're likely going to consider an Apple product. Whereas Apple users aren't switching to Android in significant numbers.

jayducharme · Jan 2, 2014

What confounds me is how one report a few days ago said that Safari occupies about 3% of web traffic as a browser. Then a report like this one that says iPhones and iPads (presumably using Safari) account for the majority of browsing on the web. I guess the first report was about desktop browsers (which are probably becoming more and more irrelevant).

So if mobile devices currently outnumber desktops/laptops, I would assume then that this report is great news for Apple and that they have the dominant browser.

captain cadet · Jan 2, 2014

This is where pefectiom is needed. People will only bother to use the onboard browser if it's good and of its rubbish they will only use apps like Facebook to surf the net. Apple takes pride in safari while other companies see it as a utility and do t put much effort into it.
When was the last time you saw google talk about chrome on android? Or Microsoft say much about Internet explorer (not as much as they use to) - also who has tired to use the internet on a android device? It's buggy as anything!

N64 · Jan 2, 2014

TWSS37 said:
Has anyone said this in reality or do we just regurgitate what we read on fan sites? Anyone I have ever known who has used a Nexus tablet device has been nothing but completely satisfied with it.

One of my friends, the only one I know with an Android tablet, bought one and never seems to use it, but I don't know what happened. I know another friend who bought a Sony tablet and only used it once, but he doesn't really count since he did that with an Xbox 360 as well (neither game that came with it worked).

Speedy2 · Jan 2, 2014

Is this the thread where all the die-hard Apple fans come to lick their wounds and celebrate the last chart in which Apple is still in the lead?

N64 · Jan 2, 2014

jayducharme said:
What confounds me is how one report a few days ago said that Safari occupies about 3% of web traffic as a browser. Then a report like this one that says iPhones and iPads (presumably using Safari) account for the majority of browsing on the web. I guess the first report was about desktop browsers (which are probably becoming more and more irrelevant).

So if mobile devices currently outnumber desktops/laptops, I would assume then that this report is great news for Apple and that they have the dominant browser.

You've forgotten that Macs can run Firefox and Chrome. The Mac Firefox sucks for some reason and also isn't so popular, but Chrome is very popular probably because people were used to using it in Windows. Not sure what's the point of using it when you have Safari, but anyway it takes a large bite out of Safari usage.

co.ag.2005 · Jan 2, 2014

TWSS37 said:
Have you? Chrome on Android is about as flawless a mobile browser as you could ask for.

doesn't feel flawless to me. Chrome still feels laggy to me compared to Safari. I still prefer the browsing experience of Safari on my iPhone compared to Chrome on my Nexus 5.

this is just my experience. not negating yours in any way.

N64 · Jan 2, 2014

captain cadet said:
When was the last time you saw google talk about chrome on android? Or Microsoft say much about Internet explorer (not as much as they use to) - also who has tired to use the internet on a android device?

Last December 31 at 23:50. Microsoft pushes and advertises IE a lot; the thing is that they don't actually improve it.

iPhone and iPad Dominate Mobile Web Share Throughout Holidays

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