Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | October 11, 2011, 7:27am PDT

Summary: iOS dominates Android.

A research report from comScore shows just how prolific web access from mobile devices have become.

Here are some of the highlights:

Mobile devices account for 6.8% of US web traffic with two-thirds of that traffic coming from mobile phones.
Increased availability of WiFi and mobile web access is driving this increase.
The iPad accounts for a whopping 97.2% of tablet traffic in the US and 46.8% of all mobile web traffic.
iPhone accounts for 42.6% of mobile web traffic.
58% of tablet user consume world, national or local news on their devices, with 1 in 4 consuming this content on a near-daily basis on their tablets.
Nearly 3 in 5 of tablet owners carried out social networking status on their device during September.
iOS is the leading connected device platform by both device share and traffic share:

I think that the number that matters here is the iPad figure that I headlined. That number alone shows just how much catching up the competition has to do.

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Topics

Apple iPad, ComScore Networks Inc., Tablets, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

heandyln 18th Oct

I like paly:
plants vs zombies.
red alert.
land air sea warfare.
fieldrunners.
zombie attack - second wave.

Top 5 Free iPad Strategy Games:

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

Englishmole 11th Oct

"BUT IT'S JUST A BIG iPOD TOUCH!"

Heh heh heh.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

ShamooToo 11th Oct

@Englishmole

Thank you! happy

That is deserved.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

HypnoToad72 11th Oct

@Englishmole - technically, it is.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

Badgered 11th Oct

@Englishmole

um.. it is. And how would these numbers prove it isn't?

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

ScorpioBlue 11th Oct

"BUT IT'S JUST A BIG iPOD TOUCH!"

Nuthin' wrong with that. wink

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

kenosha77a Updated - 11th Oct

The data implies that smartphone iOS users access the internet much more frequently than Android counterparts.

But as AKH pointed out, the data indicates that all the Android tablet users "shun" internet access versus their iPad counterparts. (97% to a portion of the remaining 3% -- one has to factor in the other platforms (Windows, QNX and WebOS users in addition to Android tablet owners)

Somehow, that implication just doesn't add up. Or, if that figure accurately depicts reality, what does that say about the computing habits of Android tablet owners?

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

JohnVoter Updated - 12th Oct

@kenosha7777
On one hand, we know that iPad dominates tablet sales. Android is a much more significant presence in smartphones than tablets. On the other hand, I think this points out the weakness in the Kindle Fire. No 3G internet access. People who buy the new Kindle are going to leave it home.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

statuskwo5 11th Oct

So what? I love my TouchPad and wouldn't trade it for anything.

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fudged numbers

The Linux Geek 11th Oct

these conscore numbers for iCrap have as much credibility as other M$ 'scores':....zero.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

MG537 11th Oct

@The Linux Geek
Then I assume you will share with us the counter-study that shows these numbers to be bogus.

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97%?

Doctor Demento 11th Oct

Hmmmm.....that sounds suspiciously like a monopoly....Apple had better hope a strong competitor arises soon, or they are going to find themselves getting the Microsoft treatment by the Justice Department.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

kenosha77a 11th Oct

@Doctor Demento

I wouldn't worry about that scenario. If you understood the history behind the Microsoft legal issues, you would not have any concerns about those issues regarding Apple and their iOS devices.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

msalzberg 11th Oct

@Doctor Demento

Even if you were correct, there's nothing illegal about a monopoly.

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Yes, only abuse of monopoly power is illegal, and this is not seen yet

DeRSSS 11th Oct

@msalzberg

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There is in the EU.

William Farrell 11th Oct

@msalzberg

any company with over 40 some odd % of the market is automaticly given restriction going forward, or something like that.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

stevejg61 11th Oct

@Doctor Demento they should - especially since anything that looks like a tablet is getting banned for patent infringement - even based upon looks - though I doubt Samsung puts the Apple logo on the back

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That "LOGO" thing was used by a Korean

James Quinn 11th Oct

@stevejg61 ... company that made a bondi blue iMac clone. They used the OS which was Windows and the logo claim in their counter against Apple's suite back in the day and it did not work.

Pagan jim

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

dave95. 11th Oct

@stevejg61

Care to provide a link that backs up your statement? That Apple is going after "anything" that looks like a tablet? I'll provide a link that shows exactly why Apple is going after Samsung, hard. For blatant cloning of their designs and IP.

Edit: Looks like ZDNet is cracking down on links in posts. Just copy and paste the following in Google and click on the first result -- "this is why Apple is suing Samsung"

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

Rick_R Updated - 11th Oct

@Doctor Demento

To be an illegal monopoly they have to be engaging in activities that constitute an "anticompetitive restraint on trade". For instance, MS used to insist that if a PC vendor wanted to include Windows on any PC it had to buy a license for every PC it sold, even if that PC was sold with a different OS. It's not Apple's fault that other hardware manufacturers haven't been able to run retail stores profitably.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

ScorpioBlue 11th Oct

To be an illegal monopoly they have to be engaging in activities that constitute an "anticompetitive restraint on trade". For instance, MS used to insist that if a PC vendor wanted to include Windows on any PC it had to buy a license for every PC it sold, even if that PC was sold with a different OS.

"Used to"?

lol... grin

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Numbers don't not add up

Scrabbler 11th Oct

If iPad is 46.8% of mobile web traffic and iPhone is 42.6% then why iOS only has 58.5%? People must be running Android on their iPads???

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

pupkin_z 11th Oct

how did they determine whether it was an iPad or an Android device?

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So where are all the missing Android tablets?

Bruizer 11th Oct

If you read IDC and Gartner and track all the units that have "shipped" in the US, there are about 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 Android tablets that have been shipped to the US in the previous 9 months or so. Where are they?

Worldwide, these numbers (and Google's Marketplace stats) support a range of 800,000 -> 1,800,000 Android tablets in use world wide. Where are all the other tablets? We are talking about 1,000,000's upon 1,000,000's of Android tablets (perhaps 10,000,000's of million on the worldwide market) sitting unsold in stores and warehouses around the planet.

The manufactures have 4 weeks to get units flowing for the holiday season. After that, it is too late to capitalize on holiday sales.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

RocketEater 11th Oct

So in this supposedly post-PC era, mobile devices account for a measly 6.8% of US web traffic. And of that, two thirds is coming from mobile phones. So the iPad, the darling of the post-PC era pundits, accounts for about 2% of US web traffic. Post-PC era? Don't think so.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

dhmccoy 11th Oct

@RocketEater
That's almost 4% and the iPad came out last year. One device from a single company is doing that. That is as significant a figure as you can get. Put it this way...Linux in 15yrs hasn't done that.

I guess you also invest after the highs are reached. wink

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Nope.

spdragoo@... 12th Oct

@dhmccoy

2/3 of 6.8% is 4.6%, but that's the *phone* percentage. That leaves only 2.2% for tablets, *including the iPad*.

And again, the 6.8% (2.2% for tablets, 4.6% for phones) is *worldwide*. iPad may make up 97% of tablet usage in the *USA*, but that's not the same as worldwide -- as evidenced by the disparity between phone digital usage in the US (37.2%) vs. the world overall (4.6%).

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'Post-PC era' is mass media cliche; Steven Jobs, for example, never used it

DeRSSS 11th Oct

@RocketEater: ... only talking about 'Post-PC devices', which are bound to be omnipresent in the future (id est not immediately yet, but in few years).

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

Droid101 11th Oct

I set my Android tablet to "Desktop" mode, so I wouldn't even show up as an Android tablet on these results.

So, they mean nothing.

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Even if that were true and they had

James Quinn 11th Oct

@Droid101 .. No way of knowing your device was actually a tablet that would mean what? How many people out there even know they can do that and if they did would they? Why?

Pagan jim

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

heathman 11th Oct

@James Quinn

I do the same. I don't know anyone who does not set their android tablet to desktop mode. Why would you visit a website on any tablet in mobile mode? Why would I use a tablet at all if viewing pages in mobile mode.. Use your phone..

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

Badgered 11th Oct

@James Quinn

Don't know how many know how to do it... but I did. Can't stand the "mobile" web pages.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

Peter Perry 11th Oct

@James Quinn Actually Jim, HTC sets their Flyer to iPad and quite a few people Set the User Agent to Desktop to avoid mobile versions of websites with their Tablets.

You see, the iPad identifies itself differently from an iPhone and thus does not display mobile web pages but Android Tablets typically just use Android and most sites are setup to assume those are phones.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

themarty 11th Oct

@James Quinn If Android people have to set their tablet to desktop mode, they must have a bad system. I guess Apple people have the right tool from the start.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

dhmccoy 11th Oct

@Droid101

Okay. That accounts for one. What about other 28k Android tablets sold.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

dsf3g 11th Oct

I wonder if an Android tablet running Gingerbread is counted as a tablet or as a phone? A significant number of early Android tablets shipped with Gingerbread (i.e. the original Samsung Galaxy Tab) and the popular Nook Color shipped with a version of Android 2.1 originally, followed by 2.2 more recently.

If these stats are only couting Honeycomb devices as Android tablets then that's a less suprising figure.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

Peter Perry 11th Oct

@dsf3g +1

And the browser UA set to Android would not be distinguishable to these tests.

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These align well with Gogle data though.

Bruizer 11th Oct

@Peter Perry

Simply look at the Android Market version stats and these are very similar.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

pupkin_z 11th Oct

iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US iPad traffic

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Skewed Statistics

reginhild 11th Oct

What happens when I surf the web on my Android tablet with it set to be seen as an iPad? I can change the settings between Android, iPad, and Windows Desktop. I sometimes use the iPad setting when sites want to broadcast mobile pages too small on the Android setting. Seems like if other Android tablets have the same option then these statistics may be skewed. Most of the time I set my Android tablet as a Windows Desktop when surfing.

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RE: comScore: iPad accounts for 97 percent of all US tablet traffic

aalexorr 11th Oct

The 46.8% and 42.6% figures for iPad and iPod, respectively, are for iOS mobile web traffic, not all mobile web traffic. iOS devices are doing great, but let's help keep the facts straight. Thanks!

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iPad & iPhone, not iPod

spdragoo@... 12th Oct

@aalexorr

Although the remaining 10.6% must be for iPods, since I can't think of any other devices that would use iOS.

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Unfortunately, we have a disconnect in the summary data

spdragoo@... 12th Oct

Example:
-- *Worldwide* digital traffic is 93.2% "non-mobile" and 6.8% "mobile", split into about 4.6% phones & 2.2% tablets. *US* digital traffic is split into 37.2% "mobile phones" and 62.8% "other", but no breakdown of phone vs. tablet (or even "non-mobile" vs. tablet) is provided.
-- iPads account for 97.2% of all tablet access *in the US*. However, no breakdown is provided for the *worldwide* category...nor is any breakdown provided as to how much of the *US* traffic is generated by tablets.
-- the "3 in 5 consume news" and "more than half completed *a* purchase" for the tablet categories is completely misleading. Why? Because we don't have a comparison of the percentages of people using "non-mobile" devices that completed *a* purchase or consume news. I've done both on a "non-mobile" device, but would be *less* likely to make purchases on my mobile. One, I'd be worried about security on the device itself (as well as the wireless signal), and two, I don't like making purchases on the Internet unless I absolutely have to (i.e. item's not in stock at the store but is available online).

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Free iPad Games

heandyln 16th Oct

I agree with the skeptics, we can not use this number, who did not respond to the case of these results to determine the overall success or acceptance of the iPad. However, I think it is important to know what people like device. This way it helps to determine why consumers.

I found that many people like the iPad is ubiquitous games and office, I built a ipad game software free download site. Check: http://www.ipadgamesfree.net
http://www.kidsipadappsfree.com