Report: iPhone's US web presence beats RIM and WiMo combined

[AppleInsider]

The popularity of Apple's WiFi mobile platform as a handheld web browser device is rapidly accelerating worldwide and dominating web traffic in the US, according to a new report issued by mobile advertising firm AdMob. Apple's strong position promises to color how the mobile web develops.

iPhone casts a huge shadow

Based on its logs of worldwide web traffic to mobile devices, AdMob noted that international web requests from the iPhone increased by 86% month over month in December, giving the smartphone a 10.8% share of all mobile device requests.

Worldwide requests only jumped 9% overall in the month, but North American requests grew by 20%. Much of that increase was due to iPhone traffic in the US, where the phone generated a whopping 48% of smartphone requests, up from just 9% in May. That is all the more impressive considering that the iPhone is only available on AT's network, where the device appears to consume more than half of the mobile data bandwidth in use.

AdMob reported that behind Apple's leading share of the US smartphone market, RIM was in second place with 19% and Microsoft's Windows Mobile trailed with 15%. Palm OS captured a 9% traffic share in December, down dramatically from a 20% peak in June due to the Palm Centro. Google's Android platform recorded a 2% share for the month.

iPod touch busts a move

"iPod touch requests on AdMob's network exploded on December 25," according to the report, with web traffic from the device increasing by 3.4 times over the previous month. iPod touch traffic was at 18 million requests in July, but jumped to 292 million in December.

The iPod touch is the number two device in AdMob's figures, with a 4.7% traffic share worldwide. Added to the first place iPhone, Apple has a 15.5% share of the company's traffic figures.

AdMob's smartphone numbers

AdMob's figures are based on the company's network of 6,000 mobile web sites and 400 mobile applications which serve the firm's ads to mobile devices. Smartphones generated 33% of the company's overall reported traffic worldwide.

Of the worldwide smartphone market, Symbian OS continued to lead with 41% of the market, including more than a 90% share of Asia and Africa. However, the iPhone grabbed a second place share of 32%, with a strong showing in North America, Europe, and Latin America. Conversely, Symbian has very little showing in North America.

Next in line internationally are the RIM OS used by BlackBerry devices at 10% and Windows Mobile with a 9% share, both of which are largely limited to North America. Palm, Danger (Sidekick) and Android claimed 4%, 2% and 1% share of the OS pie, respectively. AdMob stated that smartphones running Linux had a negligible share.

Just within the US, Apple dominated the smartphone market with a 48% share, not including any traffic from the WiFi-only iPod touch.

Apple's influential mobile data traffic volumes

AdMob's numbers give Apple a representation on the mobile web and in web advertising that overshadows the company's actual unit sales, largely because iPhone and iPod touch users actually use their mobile devices for data more frequently.

However, that also means that advertisers are seeing more reason to craft ads to target iPhone users. That in turn is a crushing blow to Adobe Flash as an ad medium, as the iPhone does not render Flash content. As Apple's mobile device sales increase, the relative importance of Flash will not only continue to wane, but additional attention will be directed toward the development of open standards-based HTML and JavaScript content.

Google and Nokia's adoption of the WebKit browser engine used by Apple's Safari web browser will also help to accelerate the mobile web's adoption of standards-based web apps and sites, a development that is occurring faster on mobile devices dominated by the iPhone and iPod touch than on the PC desktop, where progress toward standards-based web development has been held up for a decade due to the dominance of Microsoft's less than compliant Internet Explorer.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

AdMob's figures are based on the company's network of 6,000 mobile web sites and 400 mobile applications which serve the firm's ads to mobile devices. Smartphones generated 33% of the company's overall reported traffic worldwide.

Please correct me if i'm wrong, but couldn't this method actually undercount the iPhone activity? Because it is surveying only "mobile web sites," it makes no accounting of "regular" websites to which iPhone users may visit.

I know that there are other phones that can access "regular" websites, but there are many that don't and would skew this type of survey...

[solipsism]

1) I think it's preemptive to consider Flash as a waning technology since the considerably more dominate PC use of Flash is still holding fast.

2) I'm under the impression that Nokia is adopting FF3 for their future devices and have not chosen to make their previous use of WebKit a major competitor to other mobile devices using WebKit. The mobile version of FF3 has been ported by Qt Software and looks to be quite competitive to mobileSafari in terms of performance.

[mrochester]

I love it how Nokia adopted the webkit browser that the iPhone uses even though Nokias webkit mobile browser was released more than a year before the original iphonel. It really bugs me when the iPhones acomplishments are over-egged in this way.

[monstrosity]

Originally Posted by solipsism

1) I think it's preemptive to consider Flash as a waning technology since the considerably more dominate PC use of Flash is still holding fast.

2) I'm under the impression that Nokia is adopting FF3 for their future devices and have not chosen to make their previous use of WebKit a major competitor to other mobile devices using WebKit. The mobile version of FF3 has been ported by Qt Software and looks to be quite competitive to mobileSafari in terms of performance.

Nokia who?

" That in turn is a crushing blow to Adobe Flash as an ad medium"

Hooray!

[macxpress]

Does anyone know of a site/article that tells what the Android sales are?

[sflocal]

But how can that be? I've read endless complaints from whiners... I mean.. uhm.. "forum members" about how terrible the iPhone Safari browsing experience is and how they will never purchase an iPhone until it is unlocked, jailbroken, unoppressed, copy/pasted, MMS'd, whatever... Android will change the game and put Apple on the defensive.

Is it possible those critics failed to consider for a moment that the rest of society does not revolve around their opinions? Maybe the majority of people actually think it is an incredible device that shook the industry? Could those folks spewing complaints have been wrong all along?

Say it ain't so. I'm waiting to wake up to reality.

And yes, calling the whiners "critics" and "forum members" does diminish the value of those alternate nouns.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by mrochester

I love it how Nokia adopted the webkit browser that the iPhone uses even though Nokias webkit mobile browser was released more than a year before the original iphonel. It really bugs me when the iPhones acomplishments are over-egged in this way.

The article doesn't state that Nokia adopted WebKit after mobileSafari was released. It just states that both Google and Nokia adopted WebKit, which is used by Apple's Safari.

[monstrosity]

Originally Posted by sflocal

But how can that be? I've read endless complaints from whiners... I mean.. uhm.. "forum members" about how terrible the iPhone Safari browsing experience is and how they will never purchase an iPhone until it is unlocked, jailbroken, unoppressed, copy/pasted, MMS'd, whatever... Android will change the game and put Apple on the defensive.

Is it possible those critics failed to consider for a moment that the rest of society does not revolve around their opinions? Maybe the majority of people actually think it is an incredible device that shook the industry? Could those folks spewing complaints have been wrong all along?

Say it ain't so. I'm waiting to wake up to reality.

And yes, calling the whiners "critics" and "forum members" does diminish the value of those alternate nouns.

Ha! One thing I have noticed for a while is that it's often those whose job's revolve around PC's that do most of the whining. Apples success is making them nervous, retrain, never ! We will make up nonsense and negativity instead. Silly sods.

[mrochester]

Originally Posted by solipsism

The article doesn't state that Nokia adopted WebKit after mobileSafari was released. It just states that both Google and Nokia adopted WebKit, which is used by Apple's Safari.

I read this...

Google and Nokia's adoption of the WebKit browser engine used by Apple's Safari web browser will also help to accelerate the mobile web's adoption of standards-based web apps and sites,

...as Nokia and Google adopting webkit alongside the already exisiting Safari iPhone browser. It certainly gives the impression that Apple pioneered it, and everyone else is copying! I suppose the whole point of the article is to glorify the iPhone, so I guess they are always going to choose wording that twists the meaning like this.

[sflocal]

Originally Posted by monstrosity

Ha! One thing I have noticed for a while is that it's often those whose job's revolve around PC's that do most of the whining. Apples success is making them nervous, retrain, never ! We will make up nonsense and negativity instead. Silly sods.

I agree. They have a belief that since they are so technologically advanced compared to the regular Joe, that they think what is best for them must be best for everyone else . What they fail to take into consideration is that geeks (or most likely "nerds") constitute a very small (but vocal) minority.

Apple figured out long ago that the non-technical people outnumber the technical-superior-intellects and designed their products around them. It's funny watching them constantly be proved wrong. I suppose they just refuse to learn. If Apple bent-over to their whims, they would have went out of business ages ago.

[sflocal]

Originally Posted by mrochester

It certainly gives the impression that Apple pioneered it, and everyone else is copying! I suppose the whole point of the article is to glorify the iPhone, so I guess they are always going to choose wording that twists the meaning like this.

I don't think the article is biased toward the iPhone. Anyone reading this article and discussing webkit should know (I hope) the origins of it.

I can of course see a regular non-technical reader believing webkit was all Apple's stuff 100%.

However, isn't the article more about in general how the iPhone/Touch is the dominant mobile web-browsing device? It doesn't necessarily matter that Safari is using webkit. It is just that Apple seems to have done a pretty darn good job of packaging it and putting it out there for everyone to use.

[RichL]

Originally Posted by sflocal

I don't think the article is biased toward the iPhone.

Prince's articles are always biased. Promotion of APPL is the only reason why he writes them.

Has anyone seen the news about the new Palm Pre running Linux? I thought that Palm were dead and buried but it looks impressive. And it's using WebKit like everyone else.

[sflocal]

Originally Posted by RichL

Prince's articles are always biased. Promotion of APPL is the only reason why he writes them.

Has anyone seen the news about the new Palm Pre running Linux? I thought that Palm were dead and buried but it looks impressive. And it's using WebKit like everyone else.

I read about the Palm Pre. I used to develop for them but like everyone else, gave up on them a few months before they got bought out. I do have friends that work there still. I have to say that I was (mildly) impressed at least from what I saw. However, considering their culture, it may be too little too late. But I suppose one should never count them out. In ways like Apple (and RIM), they better positioned than the other players since they have more control of both hardware and software.

I'm going to keep an eye on them.

However, on the first point, I do disagree with you. Yes, Prince is normally biased but I still think the article just talked about the facts of what was going on.

Go Apple!

[BlackSummerNight]

I'm a technical person, and yes before 2.2, Safari sucked major ass. I'm thinking that you don't even own a iPhone.....or even a Mac. You are trying to sound intelligent yet you are looking like a ass.

Originally Posted by sflocal

I agree. They have a belief that since they are so technologically advanced compared to the regular Joe, that they think what is best for them must be best for everyone else . What they fail to take into consideration is that geeks (or most likely "nerds") constitute a very small (but vocal) minority.

Apple figured out long ago that the non-technical people outnumber the technical-superior-intellects and designed their products around them. It's funny watching them constantly be proved wrong. I suppose they just refuse to learn. If Apple bent-over to their whims, they would have went out of business ages ago.

[BlackSummerNight]

Gizmodo has an article up. They seem to love it.

Originally Posted by RichL

Prince's articles are always biased. Promotion of APPL is the only reason why he writes them.

Has anyone seen the news about the new Palm Pre running Linux? I thought that Palm were dead and buried but it looks impressive. And it's using WebKit like everyone else.

[Johnny Mozzarella]

Originally Posted by solipsism

The article doesn't state that Nokia adopted WebKit after mobileSafari was released. It just states that both Google and Nokia adopted WebKit, which is used by Apple's Safari.

Palm is also basing it's new platform on WebKit(not that anyone cares).

[pk22901]

Originally Posted by mrochester

I love it how Nokia adopted the webkit browser that the iPhone uses even though Nokias webkit mobile browser was released more than a year before the original iphonel. It really bugs me when the iPhones acomplishments are over-egged in this way.

You are aware that Webkit was developed together by Apple and open sw developers? Apple uses webkit as the basis for Safari. Nokia adopted webkit after Apple had been developing it for several years.

Your complaint is misplaced. AFAIK, Nokia's webkit implementation is not very performant or easy to use (see very low AdMob browser stats).

Talk to Nokia about it.

[mrochester]

Originally Posted by pk22901

You are aware that Webkit was developed together by Apple and open sw developers? Apple uses webkit as the basis for Safari. Nokia adopted webkit after Apple had been developing it for several years.

Your complaint is misplaced. AFAIK, Nokia's webkit implementation is not very performant or easy to use (see very low AdMob browser stats).

Talk to Nokia about it.

Actually it's very easy to use... I know, because I have both an iPhone 3G and S60 Nokias! In certain respects, the S60 browser is preferable over Safari, because it doesn't lag when typing replies in forums, and the pointer driven interface is more accurate when you're trying to click a link. Safari is preferable because of the screen size and res, and because it can render more sites normally. So really, they each have their good points and bad points.

[pk22901]

Originally Posted by mrochester

Actually it's very easy to use... I know, because I have both an iPhone 3G and S60 Nokias! In certain respects, the S60 browser is preferable over Safari, because it doesn't lag when typing replies in forums, and the pointer driven interface is more accurate when you're trying to click a link. Safari is preferable because of the screen size and res, and because it can render more sites normally. So really, they each have their good points and bad points.

Good for Nokia. Is the S60 unique for Nokia browsing? Or do they have it working well in all their mobiles? I'm interested as I'm long aapl and thought till now, that no one had developed a comparable browser experience.

Thanks.

[mrochester]

Originally Posted by pk22901

Good for Nokia. Is the S60 unique for Nokia browsing? Or do they have it working well in all their mobiles? I'm interested as I'm long aapl and thought till now, that no one had developed a comparable browser experience.

Thanks.

The Nokia browser is available in all Symbian based phones, and is now also avaiable in their newest non-smartphones too.

[hill60]

Originally Posted by RichL

Prince's articles are always biased. Promotion of APPL is the only reason why he writes them.

Has anyone seen the news about the new Palm Pre running Linux? I thought that Palm were dead and buried but it looks impressive. And it's using WebKit like everyone else.

So Palm released two versions of the Pre???

The one based on BeOS and another one based on Linux?

Originally Posted by mrochester

The Nokia browser is available in all Symbian based phones, and is now also avaiable in their newest non-smartphones too.

So what's with the move to Opera, is that WebKit too?

[mrochester]

Originally Posted by hill60

So Palm released two versions of the Pre???

The one based on BeOS and another one based on Linux?




So what's with the move to Opera, is that WebKit too?

What move to opera?

[hill60]

Originally Posted by mrochester

What move to opera?

It looks like it was only on a few handsets, mainly network specific.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-139222312.html

http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2005/10/14/

There may be more to come

http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa...?feed=pt_opera

[mrochester]

Originally Posted by hill60

It looks like it was only on a few handsets, mainly network specific.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-139222312.html

http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2005/10/14/

There may be more to come

http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa...?feed=pt_opera

Plus those 2 phones were released in 2005, which was before the Nokia Web Browser appeared, so they had no choice but to use Opera really.