New statistics from web analysis company comScore find that mobile devices now account for 7 percent of total web traffic, with mobile web usage continuing to rise and Apple’s iOS platform leading the charge.
AppleInsider has the report, which states that iOS accounts for 58.5 percent of all mobile web traffic, according to comScore. Its results measured traffic in August and found that mobile devices had taken 6.8 percent of web traffic away from PCs, and about two-thirds of that mobile traffic is made up by smartphones while the other third is tablets.
Among tablets, the iPad reigns supreme. According to comScore, 97 percent of tablet web traffic originates from iPads, while the remaining 3 percent is held by the rest of the tablet market. The iPad also leads the iOS platform, surpassing the iPhone for the first time: the devices hold 46.8 percent and 42.6 percent of web usage, respectively. Here’s a quote from the AppleInsider story:
‘Although the Android platform accounts for the highest share of the smartphone market (43.7 percent in August),’ comScore stated, ‘its total audience among mobile and connected devices in current use is eclipsed by the Apple iOS audience.
‘The iOS platform had the highest share of connected devices and smartphones in use at 43.1 percent, fueled by the iPad’s dominance in the tablet market, while Android accounted for 34.1 percent of the total mobile and connected device universe.’
Android sales are outpacing those of iOS, but the Android platform is accounting for less mobile web traffic, according to comScore’s findings. Android accounted for just 31.9 percent of traffic in August, with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion’s devices pulling down about 5 percent, and other platforms (such as Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7) grabbing 4.6 percent.
AppleInsider speculates that the reason for the higher Android sales but low web presence is two-fold. First, a lot of Android phones that are being sold right now, among its many smartphones, are lower-end devices that function more as feature phones. That would account for lots of sales, but not necessarily as much web traffic. And then there’s the fact that no tablets have really been able to challenge the iPad, despite the fact that there have been quite a few new tablets added to the market.
That might change with Amazon’s Kindle Fire hitting the market next month. The low-end tablet is cheap – just $199 – and it is specifically designed for uses like reading and surfing the Internet. Amazon is even rolling out new cloud software called Amazon Silk to go with the Fire, helping it to more quickly load web pages. If it works the way Amazon hopes, it could make the little tablet pretty fast.
The Kindle Fire is already seeing a high number of pre-orders, according to reports, and it seems like it could come to dominate the Android tablet market. If the 7-inch device is as quick about the web as its creators are hoping, the look of the mobile web landscape might be about to change.
