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.
Yep, the Android crowd always has an explanation. By the way, what’s the explanation for Office being released for iPad first? Gatorguy, can you fill us in? You’re the resident Android apologist.
There's one very important issue people are missing.
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.
I believe the point is that if you had widgets that could display more information than a simple icon, you wouldn't need to spend as much time in apps, i.e. I can glance at information from multiple apps and then see which ones I actually need to go into.
It should be pointed out that the Flurry report focused on U.S. smartphones.
Android activations are indeed much higher, but a huge portion of that comes from low-end devices in emerging markets (China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, etc.). The 1.5 million Android activations per day is a worldwide number.
One cannot extrapolate worldwide cellphone usage patterns by looking at usage in the wealthiest countries (U.S., UK, Japan, Germany, etc.).
It should be pointed out that the Flurry report focused on U.S. smartphones.
Android activations are indeed much higher, but a huge portion of that comes from low-end devices in emerging markets (China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, etc.). The 1.5 million Android activations per day is a worldwide number.
One cannot extrapolate worldwide cellphone usage patterns by looking at usage in the wealthiest countries (U.S., UK, Japan, Germany, etc.).
Here's probably a fairly realistic view of what is happening.
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?
Here's what mine reads from the stock browser (not Chrome) on my GNex, and no alterations to the user agent.
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.2.2; en-us; Galaxy Nexus Build/JDQ39) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30
Here's what mine reads from the stock browser (not Chrome) on my GNex, and no alterations to the user agent.
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.2.2; en-us; Galaxy Nexus Build/JDQ39) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30
Thank you for proving what I've said countless times. Aside from it reporting Safari/WebKit, what else do I see? The version of Android you're running and the device type. So much for the idiots claiming user agents confuse analytics software. I could care less what browser you've got - I know you're using Android and which version. This allows me to determine how many iOS users vs Android users visit my site (for example).
Thank you for proving what I've said countless times. Aside from it reporting Safari/WebKit, what else do I see? The version of Android you're running and the device type. So much for the idiots claiming user agents confuse analytics software. I could care less what browser you've got - I know you're using Android and which version. This allows me to determine how many iOS users vs Android users visit my site (for example).
If he noting his UA to show that Apple and Safari are stated in it as proof it's confusing for analytics SW I didn't get that. If that's that case it's surely not correct as noted by the clear mention of the platform and even HW within the first set of parenthesis.
For the sake of clarity I'll break his UA down…
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.2.2; en-us; Galaxy Nexus Build/JDQ39) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30
The components of this string are as follows:
Mozilla/5.0 — Previously used to indicate compatibility with the Mozilla rendering engine
(Linux; U; Android 4.2.2; en-us; Galaxy Nexus Build/JDQ39) — Details of the system in which the browser is running
AppleWebKit/534.30 — The platform the browser uses. Don't forget that WebKit is Apple's creation based off of KHTML. Eventually (if not already) Chrome's forking of WebKit will lead to its own platform being mentioned here with a version number.
(KHTML, like Gecko) — Browser platform details
Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30 — This is used by the browser to indicate specific enhancements that are available directly in the browser or through third parties. An example of this is Microsoft Live Meeting which registers an extension so that the Live Meeting service knows if the software is already installed, which means it can provide a streamlined experience to joining meetings. Because the version number is the same as the AppleWebKit version number I'm not sure if this means this default Nexus brewer will allow it to use all WebKit-speciifc rules not yet part of the Consortium or if that is just a placeholder value.
Anyone please feel free to clarify this data even more or correct any issues.
Yep, the Android crowd always has an explanation. By the way, what’s the explanation for Office being released for iPad first? Gatorguy, can you fill us in? You’re the resident Android apologist.
MS probably felt iOS users were the only ones stupid enough to pay a $100+/year for software that they do not own.
If he noting his UA to show that Apple and Safari are stated in it as proof it's confusing for analytics SW I didn't get that. If that's that case it's surely not correct as noted by the clear mention of the platform and even HW within the first set of parenthesis.
For the sake of clarity I'll break his UA down…
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.2.2; en-us; Galaxy Nexus Build/JDQ39) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30
The components of this string are as follows:
Mozilla/5.0 — Previously used to indicate compatibility with the Mozilla rendering engine
(Linux; U; Android 4.2.2; en-us; Galaxy Nexus Build/JDQ39) — Details of the system in which the browser is running
AppleWebKit/534.30 — The platform the browser uses. Don't forget that WebKit is Apple's creation based off of KHTML. Eventually (if not already) Chrome's forking of WebKit will lead to its own platform being mentioned here with a version number.
(KHTML, like Gecko) — Browser platform details
Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30 — This is used by the browser to indicate specific enhancements that are available directly in the browser or through third parties. An example of this is Microsoft Live Meeting which registers an extension so that the Live Meeting service knows if the software is already installed, which means it can provide a streamlined experience to joining meetings. Because the version number is the same as the AppleWebKit version number I'm not sure if this means this default Nexus brewer will allow it to use all WebKit-speciifc rules not yet part of the Consortium or if that is just a placeholder value.
Anyone please feel free to clarify this data even more or correct any issues.
No I didn't post it with a ulterior 'ah ha, see it says Apple and Safari' motive. I was curious to see what it would contain, and thought I'd share it with anyone that would want to know how it comes up in Android.
And here's your answer to how it shows up on Chrome.
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.2.2; Galaxy Nexus Build/JDQ39) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/33.0.1750.132 Mobile Safari/537.36
[QUOTE name="EricTheHalfBee" url="/t/176847/apples-safari-most-used-smartphone-browser-but-apps-dominate-mobile-web#post_2508006"] There's one very important issue people are missing.
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.[/QUOTE] There's another aspect to the "glorified App launcher" criticism besides homescreen aesthetics (and I agree that the average user doesn't spend much time staring at the homescreen). It's that as a result of how iOS is designed, apps on iOS tend to exist in isolation with limited means for communicating with one another. This limitation promotes duplication of functionality can cause third-party apps to feel bolted on. For example, if an app A wants to share a photo to app B or open a map link in app B, the developer of app A has to explicitly hardcode the url scheme for app B at compile time. If a user of app A prefers to instead use app C, then he would need to jump through copy-paste hoops.
Android adheres more closely to the unix philosophy of computing, which envisions small, specialized programs working together in order to accomplish complex tasks. The facilities for inter-app communication are much stronger and intentionally blur the boundaries between apps. An Android app is made up of functional units called "activities", and each activity can be advertised as a publicly callable service that other apps can make their own. Another major difference from iOS is that on an Android system, the external services that an app can use are determined at runtime by the user rather than fixed at compile time. So if you select a map link in any browser and have Waze installed, you would see something like the following: [URL=http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/41131/] [/URL] ([URL=http://media02.hongkiat.com/push-content-android-pushbullet/complete-action-using.jpg]http://media02.hongkiat.com/push-content-android-pushbullet/complete-action-using.jpg[/URL]) This mechanism lets third-party apps can integrate with the system just as well as first-party apps. Android also serves as an "app launcher", but the apps behave more like components of an interconnected system rather than isolated parts.
Thank you for proving what I've said countless times. Aside from it reporting Safari/WebKit, what else do I see? The version of Android you're running and the device type. So much for the idiots claiming user agents confuse analytics software. I could care less what browser you've got - I know you're using Android and which version. This allows me to determine how many iOS users vs Android users visit my site (for example).
I never bought into that line of reasoning. The number of people that change their user agent for whatever reason aren't going to be enough to sway usage stats not one iota.
I never bought into that line of reasoning. The number of people that change their user agent for whatever reason aren't going to be enough to sway usage stats not one iota.
I'm not saying you bought into that line of thinking.
Just pointing out that there are a LOT of people who assume that because Safari/Webkit shows up in the user agent that somehow Android devices are getting counted as iOS devices. And this isn't just the odd person here or there - every single time an analytics company (Flurry, SA, Chitika, IBM...) does a study regarding iOS vs Android usage there are always several people who immediately bring up the user agent to show the numbers can't be accurate.
And if you bring up the idea that most people don't mess with their user agent they'll call BS as "every Android user is intelligent and always modifies their devices for maximum performance and usability".
I'm not saying you bought into that line of thinking.
Just pointing out that there are a LOT of people who assume that because Safari/Webkit shows up in the user agent that somehow Android devices are getting counted as iOS devices. And this isn't just the odd person here or there - every single time an analytics company (Flurry, SA, Chitika, IBM...) does a study regarding iOS vs Android usage there are always several people who immediately bring up the user agent to show the numbers can't be accurate.
And if you bring up the idea that most people don't mess with their user agent they'll call BS as "every Android user is intelligent and always modifies their devices for maximum performance and usability".
Apologies if I sounded accusatory, I meant it as a matter of factly. I absolutely agree that most people don't change their UA. It used to be easy to do in earlier versions of Android, but that's no longer the case.
I can't believe one person actually equated phone web browser usage with using a smartphone as a "smart" device. It is simply one of literally millions of choices available to a smartphone user regardless of platform. All this research simply says is that is you want to read news it may be easier to use a dedicated news app than open safari and the same applies with thousands of other apps that get the info to you faster and better than Safari. Why would this surprise anyone since this trend has been obvious for years.
Some people might spend the majority of their time playing games, students might use it mainly for Yik Yak, tumblr, kik, twitter, and Facebook. Others might use it primarily as a hook up app. Others still might use it primarily for diagnostic apps whether medical, engineering, or so many other possibilities. Are those people somehow not using their smartphone as a smartphone because their usage pattern does not include browsing the web a a certain percentage of the time. Give me a break. The myopic opinions here is staggering. Please let me know the correct percentage of time I should be using Safari on my iPhone so I meet with your approval.
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?
Just out of curiosity I found out how to change my UA, it's not as simple as it used to be, but not all that difficult. Here's what I got now on the stock Android browser.
Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7
It is not surprising that Apple customers spend more time on Safari than Google Chrome users. The new iOS7 out prices more than half of the Android phones. Apple customers seem to buy more in general and spend more time making purchases than Google counterparts. Our latest app took several weeks to get released on the iOS app store, Buy Local: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.absbm.buylocal&hl=en. But we expect to get a higher traffic volume of users that purchase a package from iOS.
Comments
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.
Yep, the Android crowd always has an explanation. By the way, what’s the explanation for Office being released for iPad first? Gatorguy, can you fill us in? You’re the resident Android apologist.
There's one very important issue people are missing.
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.
I believe the point is that if you had widgets that could display more information than a simple icon, you wouldn't need to spend as much time in apps, i.e. I can glance at information from multiple apps and then see which ones I actually need to go into.
It should be pointed out that the Flurry report focused on U.S. smartphones.
Android activations are indeed much higher, but a huge portion of that comes from low-end devices in emerging markets (China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, etc.). The 1.5 million Android activations per day is a worldwide number.
One cannot extrapolate worldwide cellphone usage patterns by looking at usage in the wealthiest countries (U.S., UK, Japan, Germany, etc.).
I offered my guess in the very first post in that thread. Surprised you missed it.
It should be pointed out that the Flurry report focused on U.S. smartphones.
Android activations are indeed much higher, but a huge portion of that comes from low-end devices in emerging markets (China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, etc.). The 1.5 million Android activations per day is a worldwide number.
One cannot extrapolate worldwide cellphone usage patterns by looking at usage in the wealthiest countries (U.S., UK, Japan, Germany, etc.).
Here's probably a fairly realistic view of what is happening.
http://cdn0.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/03/iOS-v-Android-global-split.jpg
Here's what mine reads from the stock browser (not Chrome) on my GNex, and no alterations to the user agent.
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.2.2; en-us; Galaxy Nexus Build/JDQ39) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30
Thank you for proving what I've said countless times. Aside from it reporting Safari/WebKit, what else do I see? The version of Android you're running and the device type. So much for the idiots claiming user agents confuse analytics software. I could care less what browser you've got - I know you're using Android and which version. This allows me to determine how many iOS users vs Android users visit my site (for example).
If he noting his UA to show that Apple and Safari are stated in it as proof it's confusing for analytics SW I didn't get that. If that's that case it's surely not correct as noted by the clear mention of the platform and even HW within the first set of parenthesis.
For the sake of clarity I'll break his UA down…
The components of this string are as follows:
Anyone please feel free to clarify this data even more or correct any issues.
Yep, the Android crowd always has an explanation. By the way, what’s the explanation for Office being released for iPad first? Gatorguy, can you fill us in? You’re the resident Android apologist.
MS probably felt iOS users were the only ones stupid enough to pay a $100+/year for software that they do not own.
^ Sarcasm btw.
No I didn't post it with a ulterior 'ah ha, see it says Apple and Safari' motive. I was curious to see what it would contain, and thought I'd share it with anyone that would want to know how it comes up in Android.
And here's your answer to how it shows up on Chrome.
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.2.2; Galaxy Nexus Build/JDQ39) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/33.0.1750.132 Mobile Safari/537.36
There's one very important issue people are missing.
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.[/QUOTE]
There's another aspect to the "glorified App launcher" criticism besides homescreen aesthetics (and I agree that the average user doesn't spend much time staring at the homescreen). It's that as a result of how iOS is designed, apps on iOS tend to exist in isolation with limited means for communicating with one another. This limitation promotes duplication of functionality can cause third-party apps to feel bolted on. For example, if an app A wants to share a photo to app B or open a map link in app B, the developer of app A has to explicitly hardcode the url scheme for app B at compile time. If a user of app A prefers to instead use app C, then he would need to jump through copy-paste hoops.
Android adheres more closely to the unix philosophy of computing, which envisions small, specialized programs working together in order to accomplish complex tasks. The facilities for inter-app communication are much stronger and intentionally blur the boundaries between apps. An Android app is made up of functional units called "activities", and each activity can be advertised as a publicly callable service that other apps can make their own. Another major difference from iOS is that on an Android system, the external services that an app can use are determined at runtime by the user rather than fixed at compile time. So if you select a map link in any browser and have Waze installed, you would see something like the following:
[URL=http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/41131/]
[/URL]
([URL=http://media02.hongkiat.com/push-content-android-pushbullet/complete-action-using.jpg]http://media02.hongkiat.com/push-content-android-pushbullet/complete-action-using.jpg[/URL])
This mechanism lets third-party apps can integrate with the system just as well as first-party apps. Android also serves as an "app launcher", but the apps behave more like components of an interconnected system rather than isolated parts.
I never bought into that line of reasoning. The number of people that change their user agent for whatever reason aren't going to be enough to sway usage stats not one iota.
I never bought into that line of reasoning. The number of people that change their user agent for whatever reason aren't going to be enough to sway usage stats not one iota.
I'm not saying you bought into that line of thinking.
Just pointing out that there are a LOT of people who assume that because Safari/Webkit shows up in the user agent that somehow Android devices are getting counted as iOS devices. And this isn't just the odd person here or there - every single time an analytics company (Flurry, SA, Chitika, IBM...) does a study regarding iOS vs Android usage there are always several people who immediately bring up the user agent to show the numbers can't be accurate.
And if you bring up the idea that most people don't mess with their user agent they'll call BS as "every Android user is intelligent and always modifies their devices for maximum performance and usability".
Apologies if I sounded accusatory, I meant it as a matter of factly. I absolutely agree that most people don't change their UA. It used to be easy to do in earlier versions of Android, but that's no longer the case.
I can't believe one person actually equated phone web browser usage with using a smartphone as a "smart" device. It is simply one of literally millions of choices available to a smartphone user regardless of platform. All this research simply says is that is you want to read news it may be easier to use a dedicated news app than open safari and the same applies with thousands of other apps that get the info to you faster and better than Safari. Why would this surprise anyone since this trend has been obvious for years.
Some people might spend the majority of their time playing games, students might use it mainly for Yik Yak, tumblr, kik, twitter, and Facebook. Others might use it primarily as a hook up app. Others still might use it primarily for diagnostic apps whether medical, engineering, or so many other possibilities. Are those people somehow not using their smartphone as a smartphone because their usage pattern does not include browsing the web a a certain percentage of the time. Give me a break. The myopic opinions here is staggering. Please let me know the correct percentage of time I should be using Safari on my iPhone so I meet with your approval.
Just out of curiosity I found out how to change my UA, it's not as simple as it used to be, but not all that difficult. Here's what I got now on the stock Android browser.
Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7
It is not surprising that Apple customers spend more time on Safari than Google Chrome users. The new iOS7 out prices more than half of the Android phones. Apple customers seem to buy more in general and spend more time making purchases than Google counterparts. Our latest app took several weeks to get released on the iOS app store, Buy Local: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.absbm.buylocal&hl=en. But we expect to get a higher traffic volume of users that purchase a package from iOS.
Sincerely,
Misty
AB Mobile Apps