Apple's iPad contributes 89% of global tablet traffic
A new study has found that 89 percent of the world's Internet traffic on tablets comes from Apple's iPad.
Research firm comScore announced a Device Essentials analytics service earlier this week reporting on digital traffic by device. The study uses "census-level information from tagged web page content" to reveal device usage.
The inaugural report found that Apple's iPad dominates across all 13 geographies tracked, accounting for more than 89 percent of tablet traffic across all markets.
According to the report, the iPad makes up the highest percentage of total non-computer traffic in Canada with 33.5 percent. Brazil is second with 31.8 percent, though it should be noted that non-computer devices comprise less than 1 percent of traffic in the country.
Though Android tablets are way behind the iPad in terms of traffic, Android smartphones led the iPhone with 35.6 percent of smartphone traffic, compared to Apple's 23.5 percent. comScore's data also suggested that iOS users are more likely to access the Internet over a Wi-Fi network than are Android users.
47.5 percent of iPhone traffic occurred over Wi-Fi networks, as opposed to 21.7 percent on Android phones. The vast majority, 91.9 percent, of iPad traffic took place over Wi-Fi, while Wi-Fi usage on Android tablets made up 65.2 percent.
Last month, research group Nielsen published a study that found the iPad has an 82 percent market share of tablets in the U.S. The Samsung Galaxy Tab was second with a 4 percent market share.
A number of analysts expect Apple to lead the tablet market for the "foreseeable future." As of earlier this month, Apple had sold 25 million iPads in the 14 months since the device's launch and is on track to sell more than 8 million units this quarter.
Research firm comScore announced a Device Essentials analytics service earlier this week reporting on digital traffic by device. The study uses "census-level information from tagged web page content" to reveal device usage.
The inaugural report found that Apple's iPad dominates across all 13 geographies tracked, accounting for more than 89 percent of tablet traffic across all markets.
According to the report, the iPad makes up the highest percentage of total non-computer traffic in Canada with 33.5 percent. Brazil is second with 31.8 percent, though it should be noted that non-computer devices comprise less than 1 percent of traffic in the country.
Though Android tablets are way behind the iPad in terms of traffic, Android smartphones led the iPhone with 35.6 percent of smartphone traffic, compared to Apple's 23.5 percent. comScore's data also suggested that iOS users are more likely to access the Internet over a Wi-Fi network than are Android users.
47.5 percent of iPhone traffic occurred over Wi-Fi networks, as opposed to 21.7 percent on Android phones. The vast majority, 91.9 percent, of iPad traffic took place over Wi-Fi, while Wi-Fi usage on Android tablets made up 65.2 percent.
Last month, research group Nielsen published a study that found the iPad has an 82 percent market share of tablets in the U.S. The Samsung Galaxy Tab was second with a 4 percent market share.
A number of analysts expect Apple to lead the tablet market for the "foreseeable future." As of earlier this month, Apple had sold 25 million iPads in the 14 months since the device's launch and is on track to sell more than 8 million units this quarter.
Comments
Perhaps they would like to list other "manufacturers" instead one vs a multiple.
Interestingly Apple's iPhone leads in 8 out of 11 countries regarding internet usage.
Agreed. All these reports and surveys about Android versus iPhone seem to be made up to validate some particular point of view. All these reports of Android sales having long ago overtaken iPhone sales, then a report like this showing iPhone internet usage leading by a wide margin in most countries. A recent AI article states that iPhone is the best selling smartphone in AT&T and Verizon stores. T-mobile says they have a million iPhones on their network even though they don't sell the iPhone and the iPhone isn't even designed to run well on that network.
How can these reports all be true. If Android is outselling iPhone it doesn't appear people are using them after they buy them. Someone please explain to me what is going on.
Also it is interesting to note that the Xoom and the Playbook are not even mentioned in the article.
ie. for the US its (21.8/22.5)*100 = 96%
To produce the global numbers you'd have to weight by market, which Comscore don't provide us the numbers to replicate but we can assume that they have internally.
What's really damning about this number is that it suggests that either the galaxy tab's sell through is even worse than we all thought or perhaps worse still, people who bought it aren't actually using it very much.
Go into any Apple store and the iPads are surrounded by people. They all use wifi to connect to the internet and are used constantly. Apple itself loves to talk about the significant foot traffic in their stores.
Go into any best buy, verizon store or ATT store and you are lucky to see even 1 android tablet on display in usable condition. It probably is not hooked up to the internet if it is there at all.
I'm not doubting Apple's ability to sell iPads or the number they have sold, its significant. I just can't help but think that some percentage of this usage total is going to demo units.
I am not sure where I see the 89% coming from iPad activity. The report says the iPad's contribution is highest in Canada, but there it is just 33.5%.
The 89% is strictly the iPad's portion of all TABLET internet traffic. Each line totals ≈100% so 33.5% is the iPad's portion of all internet traffic in Canada which includes all devices.
I'm a big believer in the iPad as a platform, so what I'm about to say comes from an honest place: I wonder how much of this total traffic comes from people test driving iPads in Apple stores.
Go into any Apple store and the iPads are surrounded by people. They all use wifi to connect to the internet and are used constantly. Apple itself loves to talk about the significant foot traffic in their stores.
Do the math.
I don't know the numbers but even guesses are good enough to prove the point.
Say there are 1,000 Apple Stores. Now, say that there are 10 iPads in each store. That's 10,000 demo iPads. Then, say that the iPad is in use 10 hours a day in the Apple Store compared to an average of 1 hour per day for owned iPads. That means that the Apple Store would account for the equivalent of 100,000 iPads in real service. Compare that to 25 million iPads sold and you have your answer.
Agreed. All these reports and surveys about Android versus iPhone seem to be made up to validate some particular point of view. All these reports of Android sales having long ago overtaken iPhone sales, then a report like this showing iPhone internet usage leading by a wide margin in most countries. A recent AI article states that iPhone is the best selling smartphone in AT&T and Verizon stores. T-mobile says they have a million iPhones on their network even though they don't sell the iPhone and the iPhone isn't even designed to run well on that network.
How can these reports all be true. If Android is outselling iPhone it doesn't appear people are using them after they buy them. Someone please explain to me what is going on.
Also it is interesting to note that the Xoom and the Playbook are not even mentioned in the article.
Xoom and Playbook are insignificant in terms of total numbers.
Note that PC Magazine said that the iPad was 97 or 98% of all tablet traffic - which seems more consistent with the numbers presented in this survey. I wonder where the 89% came from?
As for the rest, you're absolutely correct. The media and Android shills have tried very hard to obfuscate the issues. But look at the US figures. iOS devices account for 53% of total traffic vs 36% for Android. It's only by breaking down the iOS numbers into smaller categories that you can make Android 'win'.
I've said it before, but obviously the authors of articles like this don't get it.
MARKET SHARE IS A MEANINGLESS NUMBER when viewed by itself. It really comes down to what you are trying to determine.
If you are a software developer, what matters is dollars of revenue generated by each platform - where iOS wins hands-down.
Alternatively, a software developer might look at the total number of users for each platform - where iOS wins hands down.
If, OTOH, you are a device manufacturer making cell phone accessories, then the number of cell phones for each platform might matter (for example, if it's software that only works on phones). If that's the case, Android might have a slight advantage (although the fact that Android purchasers are less likely to spend money on software might work against you).
More likely, however, would be the number of devices of each model - if, for example, you were selling cases. In that case, the number of devices of each MODEL is what would matter - and iPhone and iPod Touch would certainly be on top.
If you're a telco, you'd be most interested in total traffic either by device or by OS - depending on what you were trying to figure out.
If you're an advertiser, you'd want to know the total number of eyeballs (which would be a combination of number of devices and hours of use).
If you're an investor, you're more interested in profitability than in market share.
And so on.
Note that PC Magazine said that the iPad was 97 or 98% of all tablet traffic - which seems more consistent with the numbers presented in this survey. I wonder where the 89% came from?
I think that the 97% is probably right for the US and the developed world in general, but if you look at developing markets there then it's significantly less - the 89% will be averaged across all markets, including those which comscore haven't provided us in their freebie press release like China.
More likely, however, would be the number of devices of each model - if, for example, you were selling cases. In that case, the number of devices of each MODEL is what would matter - and iPhone and iPod Touch would certainly be on top.
This also is probably the most important thing for software devs too. Did you catch the news that Hulu had released on Android? Specifically on 6 models of Android.
The 89% is strictly the iPad's portion of all TABLET internet traffic. Each line totals ≈100% so 33.5% is the iPad's portion of all internet traffic in Canada which includes all devices.
It's still a bit early in the AM for me! Thanks all.
An iPad though? Different story.
I think that the 97% is probably right for the US and the developed world in general, but if you look at developing markets there then it's significantly less - the 89% will be averaged across all markets, including those which comscore haven't provided us in their freebie press release like China.
Do you really think that non-iPad tablets are significant ANYWHERE?
Look at the figures. For all the countries given, the iPad is > 98% of tablet net traffic. Now, consider that in less developed countries, tablet traffic is a fairly small percentage of the total. Add in the fact that total net traffic is highest in the countries that are already listed.
How in the world do you think that the developing markets could possibly be significant enough to drop the iPad's total from 98% to 89%?
Do you really think that non-iPad tablets are significant ANYWHERE?
From the numbers they seem to be significant in South America. Also we're missing China, and China matters.
Look at the figures. For all the countries given, the iPad is > 98% of tablet net traffic.
You're exaggerating given that it's only 97% in the US (using numbers quoted), and indeed could be anywhere between 96.4 and 97.3% since we only have 1 decimal place.
Add in the fact that total net traffic is highest in the countries that are already listed.
Erm -I think you're wrong about that. Asia, and especially China has huge internet usage. The only asian market supplied in the table where iPad is >90% is Japan.
How in the world do you think that the developing markets could possibly be significant enough to drop the iPad's total from 98% to 89%?
Because I think comscore have absolutely no reason to lie about something that could be easily checked by anybody buying their full data set. That and the fact that there are more internet users in Asia than in the US and Europe put together.
Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
Do you really think that non-iPad tablets are significant ANYWHERE?
Look at the figures. For all the countries given, the iPad is > 98% of tablet net traffic. Now, consider that in less developed countries, table traffic is a fairly small percentage of the total. Add in the fact that total net traffic is highest in the countries that are already listed.
How in the world do you think that the developing markets could possibly be significant enough to drop the iPad's total from 98% to 89%?
Excellent point. I was looking at theheadline and and my first reaction was, "that share is too low."
From the numbers they seem to be significant in South America. Also we're missing China, and China matters.
Really? Android makes up 4.8% of tablet usage in Brazil, 4.4% in Chile, and 3.1% in Argentine. How is that going to drag the worldwide average up to 11%? Oh, maybe you meant Bolivia.....
China? The total numbers are relatively small compared to worldwide figures so they can't have that much impact.
You're exaggerating given that it's only 97% in the US (using numbers quoted), and indeed could be anywhere between 96.4 and 97.3% since we only have 1 decimal place.
It doesn't flipping matter. There is no country in the figures provided that comes anywhere close to 11% non-iPad figures. NONE OF THEM. So that would mean that the countries not published would have to have low iPad numbers AND their sales volumes would have to be high enough to swing the total.
Erm -I think you're wrong about that. Asia, and especially China has huge internet usage. The only asian market supplied in the table where iPad is >90% is Japan.
Are you intentionally lying or do you not know how to read a table?
In Japan, the iPad is 100% of tablet usage according to this survey (obviously limited by significant figures). Singapore, the iPad is 94.9%. Australia (arguably not part of Asia, but still..), iPad is 98.1%. India is the only market where iPad falls BELOW 90% (88.9%) - and total tablet usage in India is very small - meaning that this number can't have much impact on the total.
Because I think comscore have absolutely no reason to lie about something that could be easily checked by anybody buying their full data set. That and the fact that there are more internet users in Asia than in the US and Europe put together.
I never said that Comscore was lying. What I said was that different reports summarized the figures differently. PC Magazine says that Comscore reported that 97% of tablet usage was on the iPad (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387530,00.asp). Given the published figures, that 97% figure seems a lot more plausible than the 89% figure.
Total internet usage is irrelevant. TOTALLY irrelevant. This report is about the percentage of TABLET internet usage that occurs on the iPad vs other tablets. And total tablet penetration in Asia is tiny. Most of the countries with major tablet usage are in the table. (Heck, if you're going to argue that the countries that are not included in the table are more important than the ones included in the table, that would be an even more severe indictment of Comscore).
I really love how the Android shills can read data like this (where every country was overwhelmingly using the iPad for Internet usage - with the exception of India) and somehow conclude that the actual numbers are far lower because this table doesn't include Tibet and Bolivia.
And then you can claim that Comscore is completely reliable and honest and their published 89% figure must be correct - while claiming that Comscore didn't include all the countries that matter so the table is completely misleading.
If you read the actual report, you'd understand the discrepancy. Comscore said that the iPad accounted for equal to or greater than 89% of tablet traffic across all markets. That means that every single market had the iPad at greater than 89% (with India at 89% and everyone else much higher). It did NOT state that 89% was the global average. Comscore's statement is consistent with the data presented - as well as PC Magazine's analysis. The lowest market had 89% of tablet usage on the iPad - and everyone else was higher. Your statement is not.
And the real kicker is - it's hilarious how the Android shills don't get how bad it makes them look to say "the iPad ONLY has 89% of tablet traffic. Look at how well Android is doing". ROTFLMAO.
From the numbers they seem to be significant in South America. Also we're missing China, and China matters.
You're exaggerating given that it's only 97% in the US (using numbers quoted), and indeed could be anywhere between 96.4 and 97.3% since we only have 1 decimal place.
Erm -I think you're wrong about that. Asia, and especially China has huge internet usage. The only asian market supplied in the table where iPad is >90% is Japan.
Because I think comscore have absolutely no reason to lie about something that could be easily checked by anybody buying their full data set. That and the fact that there are more internet users in Asia than in the US and Europe put together.
Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
Anecdotally...I was in China for the month of March and the only tablet I saw anyone use or widely sold, was the iPad. I recall off brands I did not recognize in the stores (rarely), but if I had to guess based on some time in just two provinces, I would say the iPad would be fairly dominant in a similar survey on China.
If it's up to me, the Android tablet vendors would be better off to quit trying to sell tablets immediately. I'm spreading the Apple gospel. Many articles show how the Apple iPad is superior in quality and usage overall to most other tablets, so in a way I'm just helping my friends decide in favor of the best tablet they can buy for their money with the biggest and best ecosystem available. Since I'm in the NYC metro area, it's easy to soft-sell Apple since there's so many Apple retail stores around. Android tablets are going to have a hard time getting traction where I live. I do however see some Verizon TV commercial pushing Android tablets almost constantly so I don't know if that has any effect.
It will be amazing if Apple corners the tablet market like they did with the iPod. The tablet market honestly looks huge. Apple just needs to seriously boost iPad production and they could hold the majority of the tablet market with little effort. With their economies of scale and fat cash reserve, the sky's the limit. C'mon Apple, kick some tablet ass. By the time Windows 8 is available on tablets, Apple's iPad 3 should be well-positioned to fight off any attack Microsoft can muster. Sweet.
Do the math.
I don't know the numbers but even guesses are good enough to prove the point.
Say there are 1,000 Apple Stores.
That is a number you could have looked up. Which is 325 as I recall.
Now, say that there are 10 iPads in each store. That's 10,000 demo iPads.
I believe all the stores I go to are about 15 ipads if you include the one they use for work shops. But generally folks are playing games on them not the internet so I would say it's probably more like 3 hours each tops. So by using your methodology that would be approximately 15000 hours (we'll round up to cover the larger stores like 5th avenue that likely have more ipads and more like 5 hours each) not 100k.
Also, folks in control of their own ipad are more likely to be on it more than a demo one where they get shoo'd off after 20 minutes. So the home hours are probably 1 to 1 if not more like 2 to 1 over the demo units.
But then you also have to consider the 30 or so demo computers in each store which are way more likely to get internet use for facebook etc. They likely match if not beat the store ipad use when it comes to surfing. Thus adding to the total hours.