iOS's share of the mobile web is much bigger than that of Android

Research firm Chitika has released a new interesting study for us mobile freaks. According to this report, Android's share of the mobile web is much lower than that of iOS, despite the overwhelming market share of the former.

The research covers the last 6 months, and finds out that since May, iOS has added 2% to its mobile web browsing share in the U.S. and Canada, resulting in a total of 67%. Meanwhile, Android devices are currently responsible for just 33%. Chitika notes that the highest point for Android thus far was in August (40%), when the Galaxy S III was all the rage. However, the release of the iPhone 5 and new iPad models have managed to tip the scales in iOS's favor once again.

According to the research company, the significantly higher numbers for Apple are due to the strong sales of its tablets - an area where Android is still trying to catch up.

via: MacRumors

21 Comments

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posted on 04 Dec 2012, 05:52 6

1. wendygarett (unregistered)

"According to the research company, the significantly higher numbers for Apple are due to the strong sales of its tablets - an area where Android is still trying to catch up."

Such a nice word you got there PA :)

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 06:01 12

2. amiaq (Posts: 509; Member since: 30 Jun 2012)

Yeah that's because iPhone users are using web base Google map !!

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 06:33 6

7. wendygarett (unregistered)

using web base Google map?? At may and june (before ios6) as well?? LOL

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 18:01 1

19. MC1123 (Posts: 1256; Member since: 12 Nov 2012)

lol to you!! do you anything to do other than hating apple?

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 22:08 1

21. Ivan6479 (Posts: 250; Member since: 26 Jun 2011)

LOL too funny. I had to give a thumbs up to that.

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 06:09 12

3. Evil_SaNz (Posts: 259; Member since: 20 Oct 2011)

It's simple: android users can disguise as desktop users, ios is just mobile style crappy web pages. For most users desktop ua is the real web experience.

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 06:40 4

9. sorcio46 (Posts: 435; Member since: 27 Jul 2011)

And Even some Android Browsers such as Dolphin are seen as "Safari Browser"

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 09:28

12. xtremesv (Posts: 298; Member since: 21 Oct 2011)

I don't know how much people changing their user agent string would affect these statistics. In my case it's true though, I use an iPad UA for my Note 10.1 because many sites have the compulsive behavior of showing me their mobile version even if an Android tablet is recognized. If I set a desktop UA, sites start asking me for Adobe Flash which is also annoying.

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 10:57

14. tedkord (Posts: 13872; Member since: 17 Jun 2009)

It affects it for anyone who changes it. On Dolphin HD, I show up as Safari on a Mac.

The people who argue against this don't understand how these stats are compiled. When you visit a website, a record odd your visit is generated on their server. These compiled records are bought by or given to these stat companies.

Now, there are ways to see around the UAString and see what the true browser and OS are, but the overwhelming majority of websites don't employ it.

How do you know if the website you visited saw through? Simple. If it did, it would have delivered the Android version of the page, not the desktop version.

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 06:14 5

4. amiaq (Posts: 509; Member since: 30 Jun 2012)

err... copied by Ray. S from MacRumors, commented first by wendygarett. I see a pattern here.

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 06:14

5. eddo85 (Posts: 11; Member since: 03 Dec 2012)

according to the market share android should have a way higher mobile web share.
could anyone explain that for me?

statista.com/statistics/73662/quarterly-worldwide-smartphone-market-share-by-operating-system-since-2009/

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 06:28 4

6. Berzerk000 (Posts: 4275; Member since: 26 Jun 2011)

Android users, when on the web, can be disguised as desktop users, as while iOS users are pretty much always counted as mobile. Those "desktop" Android users are unaccounted for.

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 06:38 1

8. Thephonegeek (Posts: 118; Member since: 22 Nov 2012)

And like that's true. None can judge the whole world based on North America. In My country almost all smartphones are either Android or 2 year OLD Symbians. Only those rich people gets apple products. Where the cheapest android here costs 85$. And cheapest Iphone costs 385$. Even now rich customers choose Galaxy lineup.

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 06:52

10. darac (Posts: 2156; Member since: 17 Oct 2011)

It is because much higher proportion of Android users surf in desktop mode

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 08:12 2

11. nofear (Posts: 151; Member since: 22 Jun 2012)

This chart does not mean anything, I have been used iOS tablet and itouch including my girlfriend's iphone - she just can't wait to get rid off it when her contract ended by March 2013. Been there and done that!; Android communities are so widely popular, why is Ray on dope?

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 10:17

13. sbr999 (Posts: 79; Member since: 05 Jun 2012)

I'm sure the Android % is much higher, simply because from what I've seen, people tend to use "as desktop" settings on their browser. I'm sure it's about 50%-50%, seeing that these statistics are from the US & Canada alone, worldwide things are much different.

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 11:11

15. lauremar (Posts: 181; Member since: 29 Feb 2012)

Sent from his iPhone or iPad device.... Really?!!!

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 11:48 1

16. gwuhua1984 (Posts: 1237; Member since: 06 Mar 2012)

I always use desktop mode whenever I'm browsing using my devices... if those don't get accounted for... then this research is pretty pointless...

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 13:57

17. rusticguy (Posts: 2828; Member since: 11 Aug 2012)

CISCO has some other research analysis/projections :)

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.html

To quote from above:

"Trend 8: Android Leads Apple in Data Usage

At the beginning of the tiered pricing case study, Apple operating systems' data consumption was equal to if not higher than other smartphone platforms. However, Android-based devices have now caught up and their data consumption is 29 percent higher than that of Apple devices in terms of megabytes per month per connection usage
(Figure 13)."

I am presuming that "Data usage" is equivalent to WEB access ... if my understanding is wrong then correct me :)

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 16:49

18. IHatePhones (Posts: 99; Member since: 12 Aug 2009)

I am having a little bit of a hard time understanding the stats... Is this the share of websites with the annoying popups that say that they natively support iOS or Android or how much each of the devices supporting the OS' surf the web? My money is on the natively supported stat.

posted on 04 Dec 2012, 18:08

20. IHatePhones (Posts: 99; Member since: 12 Aug 2009)

But traffic in general would be very difficult to quantify, based on Android's many different browser options as the others have mentioned above.