Apple's iOS grows mobile browsing share in US to dominant 65%

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Apple's iOS has widened its lead over Google's Android in terms of mobile Web traffic share in the U.S., reaching 65 percent of the market, according to new data.

Piper


Quantcast and investment firm Piper Jaffray have been tracking 1 billion monthly page views from around the Internet. Their latest data released on Friday shows Apple's iOS grew from a 61 percent share in late June to 65 percent at the end of August.

During that same span, Google's Android also saw its domestic Web browsing share grow, but not as much. Android went from 28 percent at the end of June to 30 percent in late August.

Growth for both Android and iOS squeezed out other platforms like Microsoft's Windows Phone or BlackBerry, which collectively accounted for just 4.66 percent of mobile traffic share by the end of August.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said the data demonstrates the popularity of Apple's iPhone in America, where it accounts for more than 50 percent of new smartphone sales on both AT&T and Verizon, the country's two largest carriers.

In addition, Munster said that iOS users are more engaged with their phones on a daily basis than the average Android user. Apple is also bolstered by the dominance of the iPad, which runs the same mobile operating system as the iPhone.

The data released Friday is just the latest to demonstrate that iPhone owners are more active and more engaged with their devices than users of other mobile platforms. The iPad is even more prevalent, accounting for 84 percent of Web traffic from tablets ? a fact cited by Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook earlier this year.

"If there are lots of other tablets selling, I don't know what they're being used for," Cook said. "Because that's a pretty basic function, is Web browsing."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 52
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    When you talk market share in the mobile world this is the stat that counts, It shows that iOS users use their product as intended. Yes Android ship more product but people are not using them as intended, they are using them as a phone and status symbol. They walk around showing off they have a smart phone like everyone else but are not smart enough to understand how to use them.
  • Reply 2 of 52
    red oakred oak Posts: 1,088member
    It is only going to get worse for Android in the US.

    5C likely free on contract, 5 at $99, and new 5S launch. New iPad and new iPad mini launches. iOS7 release. Continued rollout into T-Mobile. Better penetration into prepay. iTunes Radio launch

    Never mind Mac lineup and Apple TV refreshes
  • Reply 3 of 52
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Maestro64 View Post



    When you talk market share in the mobile world this is the stat that counts, It shows that iOS users use their product as intended. Yes Android ship more product but people are not using them as intended, they are using them as a phone and status symbol. They walk around showing off they have a smart phone like everyone else but are not smart enough to understand how to use them.

     

    Pretty hard to measure web traffic for mobile phones that are still in the unopened packages they were shipped in.

  • Reply 4 of 52
    blackbookblackbook Posts: 1,361member

    Apple's current combo of iPhone 4/4S and iPhone 5 has been killer the past 12 months. I'm hoping the 5S/5C combo gain traction throughout the next 12 months and break  records here in the US as well.

  • Reply 5 of 52
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    But but but 1 billion activations!
  • Reply 6 of 52
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    blackbook wrote: »
    Apple's current combo of iPhone 4/4S and iPhone 5 has been killer the past 12 months. I'm hoping the 5S/5C combo gain tract throughout the next 12 months and break  records here in the US as well.

    There's already predictions out that that new purchases from Japan's Docomo and China's Unicom will help push the those new release initial nine-day sales figures into the 13M range, doubling the launch numbers for the iPhone5. Those are two huge carriers.
  • Reply 7 of 52
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Red Oak View Post



    It is only going to get worse for Android in the US.



    5C likely free on contract, 5 at $99, and new 5S launch. New iPad and new iPad mini launches. iOS7 release. Continued rollout into T-Mobile. Better penetration into prepay. iTunes Radio launch



    Never mind Mac lineup and Apple TV refreshes

     

    *Now* Apple is truly Doomed(Tm)!

     

    It's going to be really interesting to see how techmedia (and media in general) is going to spin this autumn to be able to continue spinning the Apple is doomed meme.

     

    But I'm sure they will find some way.

  • Reply 8 of 52
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    jonteponte wrote: »
    *Now* Apple is truly Doomed(Tm)!

    It's going to be really interesting to see how techmedia (and media in general) is going to spin this autumn to be able to continue spinning the Apple is doomed meme.

    But I'm sure they will find some way.

    Who is claiming Apple is doomed outside of a couple posters in this forum?:\
  • Reply 9 of 52
    blackbookblackbook Posts: 1,361member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post





    There's already predictions out that that new purchases from Japan's Docomo and China's Unicom will help push the those new release initial nine-day sales figures into the 13M range, doubling the launch numbers for the iPhone5. Those are two huge carriers.

     

    I'm sure global numbers will skyrocket with the 5S/5C this upcoming year, but I'm curious if US numbers will see a similar bump?

     

    But I know if Apple markets the 5C right, we could possibly see another iPod phenomenon with the 5C this Christmas in the US. If the 5C becomes the must have Christmas gift Apple is sure to take a huge bite out of Android marketshare even in the US.

  • Reply 10 of 52
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    To be more fair to Android, they should measure ATTEMPTED web activity. My Android friends are always finding their brand-new phones are either bogged down and nearly frozen, or dead by 5pm, due to Android's failure to stop 3rd-party apps from wasting battery. (Seriously, it's a strong pattern, not an occasional fluke for them. They're always adding app-killer and system-monitor utilities and trying to manage processes like a 1990s PC, all to no avail. Then they delete apps en masse, which may or may not even help, while my iPhone can have all the apps I want!)

    So how can they be expected to use the Internet? Android's browsing share would surely increase another 10% if people could get their Android phone to work more of the time ;)
  • Reply 11 of 52
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jungmark View Post



    But but but 1 billion activations!

     

    That's before they are packaged and leave the plant in Korea.

  • Reply 12 of 52
    jungmark wrote: »
    But but but 1 billion activations!

    That's all they are used for.
  • Reply 13 of 52
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    gatorguy wrote: »
    Who is claiming Apple is doomed outside of a couple posters in this forum?:\

    Lots of stupid professional analysts, tech writers, etc.
  • Reply 14 of 52

    Could we ask the NSA how many individual iOS and Android devices have been used last month for internet and how many for regular phone calls.

    I would love to check the 1 Billion Android (activated) number! :smokey:

  • Reply 15 of 52
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    jungmark wrote: »
    Lots of stupid professional analysts, tech writers, etc.

    I've just never seen that claim outside AI. Maybe some analyst has predicted it, but I never happened to come across it?
  • Reply 16 of 52

    Though likely to be lower in the UK overall compared to the US. My website in the UK shows similar stats.

  • Reply 17 of 52
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post





    I've just never seen that claim outside AI. Maybe some analyst has predicted it, but I never happened to come across it?

     

    Man! You can't be looking very hard. The web and traditional media is awash with bullshit of that sort.

  • Reply 18 of 52
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    maestro64 wrote: »
    When you talk market share in the mobile world this is the stat that counts, It shows that iOS users use their product as intended. Yes Android ship more product but people are not using them as intended, they are using them as a phone and status symbol. They walk around showing off they have a smart phone like everyone else but are not smart enough to understand how to use them.

    While there's some truth to that, it's important not to jump to that conclusion for several reasons:

    1. This figure is likely biased in some way. I have no way of knowing how much or which direction, but the major problem in this type of comparison is ensuring that the sample is representative. It is unlikely that this sample accurately represents the entire population.

    2. Even if you could accurately determine market share, it isn't the only metric that matters. Your choice of metric will depend on what you're trying to accomplish. For example:
    - If you're a manufacturer of cases and accessories, you're probably more concerned about the total number of devices in use than the online market share. Technically, you'd want to know not only the total number in use, but the percentage of owners who use a case.
    - If you're an investor, you're probably more interest in profits than online market share. Technically, you'd want to predict FUTURE profits.
    - If you're an advertiser, the online market share metric is probably important.
    - If you're a competitor trying to decide which phone features you want to sell, then it would be SALES market share that interests you, not online market share.
    - If you're a wireless provider, you probably care about number of units in use (which is not the same as sales market share) as well as amount of data used by each customer.
    And so on.

    NO SINGLE METRIC tells you everything you need to know.

    That said, these results are interesting. The iOS/Android ratio has hardly changed (it increased from 2.14 to 2.15 which is undoubtedly within measurement error) while the 'other' category dropped by more than half in just 2 months. That just doesn't seem plausible. Sure, Blackberry is losing customers and some of the other vendors are fading into the background (does anyone use Symbian any more), but that's an enormous change in just 2 months - big enough to make me question the results.

    And, of course, one should always keep in mind the error margin in the results. I suspect that the error margin is small enough for these results to be meaningful, but without knowing the actual margin, it's hard to say for sure. But error margin is the smaller problem. As stated earlier, the real issue is whether the results are representative. Of course, if their methodology is unchanged over the period surveyed, the results may still be meaningful even if the sample does not represent the entire population.
  • Reply 19 of 52
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    gatorguy wrote: »
    I've just never seen that claim outside AI. Maybe some analyst has predicted it, but I never happened to come across it?

    'Doomed' is a strong word, but you don't need to look very far to find virtually ever major news media publishing reports that Apple has lost its innovation and its glory days are over.
  • Reply 20 of 52
    gatorguy wrote: »
    I've just never seen that claim outside AI. Maybe some analyst has predicted it, but I never happened to come across it?

    I was going to reply "Wall Street" but they haven't been saying "it's like the 1980s all over again!!!" as some have on these forums, so, I can't think of anyone really.
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