New statistics continue to suggest that not only are more people buying Apple’s seemingly unstoppable tablet juggernaut, the iPad, but also that they’re finding it highly useful – and not just because of the apps, even though there are more of those than ever before.
According to a story from Mashable, the iPad now accounts for 1 percent of all web traffic worldwide. That means out of every 100 people on the Internet and all the myriad devices they could be using to connect – ranging from laptops and PCs, Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s, smartphones, other tablets and anything else with a Wi-Fi or wired connection – one of them has one of Apple’s devices in-hand.
That’s a bit of a staggering statistic. In the U.S., the iPad accounts for 2.1 percent of all web traffic. Both sets of numbers come from a report form analysis firm NetMarketShare. It also finds that the iPad-accountable chunk of web traffic has been increasing since March, jumping almost 10 percent in three months. Tablets and mobile devices as a group have reached 5 percent of web traffic in comparison to desktop computers, as well.
Those findings are interesting for a number of notable reasons: first, that the mobile web is becoming useful enough that users can rely on it when they’re not at their desktops. That suggests that mobile sites are becoming leaner and smarter, and that surfing when on the go is a practical way of finding information. Second, that tablet browsing, and specifically iPad browsing, seems to be offering an experience that at least some people prefer, or at least find convenient, as compared to desktop browsing. It would appear that companies spending time honing tablet- and smartphone-compatible mobile websites are investing well.
Apple now offers 100,000 iPad apps
In other iPad news, it appears the number of apps built specifically for Apple’s tablet has grown significantly in the past few months, breaking 100,000.
Pocket Gamer has the story, which pegged the App Store at 75,000 iPad apps at the end of March, with the official count at 100,161 right now. That means the App Store is gaining about 203 new iPad apps every day, adding up to about 1,422 new titles every week, according to MacStories, which did the figuring on the total apps in the store.
Apple said at its Worldwide Developers Conference in May that 25 million iPads had been sold in the 16 months since the device was first made available to consumers. Counting iPhone apps, there are as many as 425,000 compatible iPad apps in the iTunes App Store right now, Apple said then.
