Apple's Safari most-used smartphone browser, but apps dominate mobile Web
Smartphone owners are nearly seven times as likely to choose native apps over mobile Web apps, new data shows. But when mobile users do turn to the Web, a majority use Apple's Safari browser.
Of the 2 hours and 42 minutes that consumers in the U.S. spend on their smartphones every day, 86 percent -- all but 23 minutes - is spent in third-party apps, according to mobile analytics and advertising firm Flurry. Nearly one-third, or 32 percent, of that time can be chalked up to gaming, with social media and messaging following closely behind at 28 percent.
"The data tells a clear story that apps, which were considered a mere fad a few years ago, are completely dominating mobile, and the browser has become a single application swimming in a sea of apps," the company said.
Users spend just 14 percent of their time using web browsers, with Apple's Safari responsible for 50 percent of that total. Another 35 percent went to Google, with the rest booked by "others." There was no word on how much of that time was spent using web-based applications versus general web surfing, however.
Safari's win came despite the inclusion of both Android and iOS devices in the study, though it is not the first time that mobile web engagement has been shown to be significantly higher on iOS devices. Apple's iPhone and iPad accounted for 80 percent of mobile sales during last year's Black Friday period, for instance.
Facebook and YouTube were the most-used third-party apps at 17 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
Of the 2 hours and 42 minutes that consumers in the U.S. spend on their smartphones every day, 86 percent -- all but 23 minutes - is spent in third-party apps, according to mobile analytics and advertising firm Flurry. Nearly one-third, or 32 percent, of that time can be chalked up to gaming, with social media and messaging following closely behind at 28 percent.
"The data tells a clear story that apps, which were considered a mere fad a few years ago, are completely dominating mobile, and the browser has become a single application swimming in a sea of apps," the company said.
Users spend just 14 percent of their time using web browsers, with Apple's Safari responsible for 50 percent of that total. Another 35 percent went to Google, with the rest booked by "others." There was no word on how much of that time was spent using web-based applications versus general web surfing, however.
Safari's win came despite the inclusion of both Android and iOS devices in the study, though it is not the first time that mobile web engagement has been shown to be significantly higher on iOS devices. Apple's iPhone and iPad accounted for 80 percent of mobile sales during last year's Black Friday period, for instance.
Facebook and YouTube were the most-used third-party apps at 17 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
Comments
Soli, if using Chrome (or other browsers) on an iPhone does it report itself as being Safari? I can't really tell and don't know enough about it to figure it out.
This is the supposed user-string for Chrome on an iPhone
Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 5_1_1 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/534.46.0 (KHTML, like Gecko) CriOS/19.0.1084.60 Mobile/9B206 Safari/7534.48.3
https://developers.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/user-agent
I don't know but it's easy to figure out by hitting any one of the many webpages designed to display your User Agent and other brewer data.
But that's beside the point. Even if using Chrome on an iDevice it's still an iDevice. If Android has all these activations why are real world usage constantly lower than the iOS?
So where does Google's 35% come from?
IIRC the stats vary depending on who reports them, tho I haven't bothered looking at it myself in some time. I thought some analytics firms showed Android browser share higher than iOS except on tablets where Apple was much higher. I can take a look later, but I really don't know. I agree it would be silly to chalk it up to Android users intentionally changing their user string. That's sounds ridiculous.
I haven't seen a single report of Android v iOS-based device usage that even came close to having Android represented by the vast number of "activations" that have been claimed by Google in comparison to Apple's iDevice sales.
PS: I see you edited your previous comment after I started posting. Note the CriOS/19.0.1084.60 specifically references Chrome on iOS and other parts of the UA clearly tell you it's not using Apple's Safari even though Chrome is having to use Apple's built-in WebKit. That still wouldn't show up as Safari, but even if it did it still doesn't account for the billions of activations for devices that don't appear to be used online.
You could look at StatCounter for a comparison. (Disclaimer: I just did) They let you break it down by device type too, such as looking at only tablet browser share
Perhaps I'm not making my point clear. The last report I read from Google is that they had 1.5 million activations per day… not just a single lucky day. Based on Apple's sales for their Holiday quarter they are only selling an average of 0.5 million device each day. So where are the stats that show Android-based devices at a level 3x higher than iOS-based devices? If they don't exist then either these 'activations" are not viable data for determining "smart" devices or we need to stop referring to each-and-every device running Android a "smart" device simply because it's running Android.
Perhaps I'm not making my point clear. The last report I read from Google is that they had 1.5 million activations per day… not just a single lucky day. Based on Apple's sales for their Holiday quarter they are only selling an average of 0.5 million device each day. So where are the stats that show Android-based devices at a level 3x higher than iOS-based devices? If they don't exist then either these 'activations" are not viable data for determining "smart" devices or we need to stop referring to each-and-every device running Android a "smart" device simply because it's running Android.
Most Android phones being sold are actually dirt cheap feature phones, but of course everyone counts these in their "marketshare" analysis vs iPhones in order to make Apple look bad. It's a ridiculous comparisons, and usage #s just prove just how small of a percentage of these phones are being used for anything approaching "smart" capability. But hey, 82,024,017,322 are being activated per day (or whatever the figure is) so it's all good and Apple is doomed.
OH, I agree that there's a whole lotta smartphone users that don't use them as smartphones. We don't at all disagree on that.
This is the supposed user-string for Chrome on an iPhone
Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 5_1_1 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/534.46.0 (KHTML, like Gecko) CriOS/19.0.1084.60 Mobile/9B206 Safari/7534.48.3
Ah, a twist on the old “Android users are changing their browser strings to look like iOS that’s why you don’t see Android in web use stats ha ha ha we still win” classic.
If they don't exist then either these 'activations" are not viable data for determining "smart" devices or we need to stop referring to each-and-every device running Android a "smart" device simply because it's running Android.
An excellent point. It seems to me that the "billions and billions" (Carl Sagan voice) of Android tablets (and cellular-enabled) devices being sold are merely children's gaming toys. They run candy crusher and anger birds and that's about it, by the user's choice. Most are apparently so underpowered that they can't render a media-heavy web page (like nytimes.com or aol.com) anyway. So I'd agree... time to stop calling these "smart-phones" or "iPad competitors". I've got a Kindle, and I use it solely to read books. It's NOT a smart-device, in my hands.
An excellent point. It seems to me that the "billions and billions" (Carl Sagan voice) of Android tablets (and cellular-enabled) devices being sold are merely children's gaming toys. They run candy crusher and anger birds and that's about it, by the user's choice. Most are apparently so underpowered that they can't render a media-heavy web page (like nytimes.com or aol.com) anyway. So I'd agree... time to stop calling these "smart-phones" or "iPad competitors". I've got a Kindle, and I use it solely to read books. It's NOT a smart-device, in my hands.
I'd argue the majority of Apple (or Android) "smart-phone" users don't do anything more with their phone than text, go on Facebook and play Candy crush and other games.
That seems to be the case, and there is nothing wrong with that. Android fills the "feature" phone market segment much better than Symbian. I just wish these details weren't be hidden.
I'd be fine if there wasn't hypocrisy. The iPad still isn't being seen as a "PC" in stats even though we see a direct drop in "PC" sales and a rise in iPad sales, and evidence that many are using their iPads for tasks they only ever did with their "PC."
I'm not saying the iPad should be classified as part of those desktop and notebook "PCs" but they definitely more useful than netbooks and there was no problem categorizing pre-iPad tablets "PCs" when they ran Windows. It all just seems unfair to me.
Soli, they're still smart devices whether the owner makes frequent use of their connected features or not. A sale of a pickup truck is still a truck sale whether the owner ever puts a thing in the bed of it. Why does it matter what the phone is used for? Now if you're a company looking to monetize smart device owners then of course it would matter to them. To Verizon or ATT or Best Buy or Motorola or LG, etc, etc. I doubt they particularly care nor see why it would affect their revenue much if at all if customers don't use a web browser after they bought the phone and signed a contract.
People spend their time in Apps. Once they unlock their phone it's straight to an App to play games, check mail, text or whatever else they're doing.
Yet Apple haters/Android users constantly criticize iOS as being nothing but a "glorified App launcher" with no ability to customize their home screen. Why do I need to customize my home screen? I don't get any work done there anyway. My first page on my iPhone has the Apps I use the most, so as soon as I unlock I can select one right away. Any other tidbits I might need that don't require opening an App are handled with notifications.
Well it seems that ALL smartphones are being used as App launchers since that's where people spend their time - in Apps.
Exactly. Devs shouldn't use shipment market share to figure out which OS to develop for first. However that's all we hear about from analysts.
I would argue they aren't pickup trucks but rather putting a single part of a pickup truck on a much weaker and less capable device then classifying itself as a truck.
We need to stop putting "truck nuts" on go-carts.
"My lug nuts require more torque to tighten then what your engine produces."