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Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

iOS web traffic overtakes Mac OS

By | February 11, 2012, 4:19am PST

Summary: iOS is clearly cannibalizing Mac OS web usage.

Want more evidence that we’re moving into a post-PC world where people are choosing to spend less time in front of traditional computers and instead option for more mobile, personal devices?

Web ads firm Chitika has released data which shows how US web traffic from iOS devices across its ad network (consisting of hundreds of millions of ad impressions) has overtaken that of Mac OS devices.

The data shows that the web market shares of iOS and OS X have been converging steadily since August. iOS has been posting regular gains, and has experienced an overall growth of nearly 50%, whereas OS X has seen its market share decline by 25% since a high point in September. February marks the first point where a reversal in position can be seen in the respective operating systems. iOS passes Mac OS with 8.15% of all web traffic, whereas Mac OS only sees 7.96%.

A couple of things did strike me about the data.

  • During the last financial quarter Apple sold a staggering 28 million iPhones and iPads (on top of that  significant number of iOS powered iPod touch devices) and only 4.8 million Macs. That’s a huge explosion in devices, but we’re not really seeing that in the data, which seems to indicate that Mac and iOS has flatlined (with respect to this ad network at any rate).
  • iOS is clearly cannibalizing Mac OS web usage. There’s almost a direct inverse correlation between the growth of iOS and the decline in Mac OS web usage. That correlation is spooky, and suggests that people who used to browse on a Mac are now browsing on an iPhone or iPad.

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

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

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 -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

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RE: iOS web traffic overtakes Mac OS
anto31 12th Feb
It's not surprising.Mac OS was never really important.
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RE: iOS web traffic overtakes Mac OS
Peter Perry Updated - 11th Feb
Like that was hard, you are talking about less than 10% of the total PC market.

Also, it isn't really cannibalizing it, they are not 100% replacements for each other.
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RE: iOS web traffic overtakes Mac OS
Rabid Howler Monkey 11th Feb
@Peter Perry wrote:
"it isn't really cannibalizing it, they are not 100% replacements for each other.

If Mac OS X sales have slowed simultaneously with iOS sales increasing, then 'cannibalizing' may not be a bad choice of words. Apple's CEO Tim Cook made the same observation, based on sales, a few days ago and he really should know. (This begs the question, why are Chitika's observations even news?)

Not all Mac OS X users need applications like Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop or AutoDesk AutoCAD, as examples. Some use their Macs mostly for email, web surfing, making travel arrangements, online banking, etc. They use Mac OS X for reasons such as style and safety, relative to Windows PCs. And with iOS v5 supporting over-the-air updates, there is no longer a need for a Mac running iTunes. Thus, users reduce their complexity as well as their expenditures with an iPad.

Similarly, some users may have switched from a MacBook to an iPad (since the iPad supports their mobile use cases) and may continue using a Mac Mini, iMac or Mac Pro at home because they have a need for a large display and greater horsepower for applications like Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop or AutoDesk AutoCAD, as examples. Again, there is a reduction in complexity and expenditures with an iPad.
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@Rabid Howler Monkey

At the same time Android hasn't cannibalized Linux-desktop at all. 4,44% market share in Wikimedia statistics during Dec 2011 while less than 2% in 2009.
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RE: iOS web traffic overtakes Mac OS
Rabid Howler Monkey 12th Feb
@Matsi66 According to Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, it's the iPad more so than the iPhone that is cannibalizing Mac sales:

"2012-01-25
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Apple-iPad-Cannibalization-Hints-at-Microsoft-Need-for-Windows-8-332022/

Since most of the Android platform growth has been with smartphones, it may just be a matter of time for Android-based tablets to begin to cannibalize the Linux desktop (including desktops, laptops and netbooks). I would expect use case examples similar to what I described above for the iPad and Mac OS X. However, as a desktop Linux user myself I am neither expecting it to surge nor to disappear.
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Correction: 37 million iPhones and 15 million iPads
theFunkDoctorSpoc Updated - 11th Feb
5.2 million Macs.. Where did you get those values?
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@theFunkDoctorSpoc The article clearly says, "Web Traffic" and seeing that OS X can be used for more real work functions than the iOS devices, which are predominantly media consumption devices, I would say, this was expected!
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@Peter Perry

This is what makes the mobile platforms so compelling to a vast number of people. Most people do not create using computers, they consume. I don't count answering emails and text messages and posting to FB "creating". Coding, photography, art, music, wood working, writing papers/stories/books, CAD/CAM, documentation... These are creation of content and most people do not do these activities using computers outside of work.

So you will see a shift of the desktop/laptop being relegated to specialty work like what happened to mainframes of the past. Mainframes did not go away but they were re-tasked. The vast number of people will do their computing on tablets. At this point, Apple and Amazon are best positioned to capitalize on this shift. MS has the potential, but like Google, they simply miss the big picture of what they are doing compared to what people want.
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@Peter Perry

I don't understand what you're replying to. The article clearly states: "During the last financial quarter Apple sold a staggering 28 million iPhones and iPads (on top of that significant number of iOS powered iPod touch devices) and only 4.8 million Macs."

As theFunkDoctorSpoc pointed out, those are wildly inaccurate numbers.
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You did not read this article...
theFunkDoctorSpoc Updated - 11th Feb
@Peter Perry

"During the last financial quarter Apple sold a staggering 28 million iPhones and iPads (on top of that significant number of iOS powered iPod touch devices) and only 4.8 million Macs"

Every word of this is wrong..
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RE: iOS web traffic overtakes Mac OS
A Grain of Salt 11th Feb
More interesting will be as iPads and other tablet devices get more ubiquitous, how the mainstream desktop browsers like IE, Firefox and Chrome will fare over time. Albeit those browsers either have, or will have, mobile counterparts that run on other platforms, the combined sales of all iOS devices and the browser usage on those devices must be a little unsettling for those companies.
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None of this would be possible, if not for Windows users. When those Windows users upgrade to WP 7 and Windows 8, they will surpass (Cr) Apple in 3 weeks.
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@Stephen-B ... Just saying

Pagan jim
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RE: iOS web traffic overtakes Mac OS
Stephen-B Updated - 11th Feb
deleted by me
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Which proves that almost everyone who uses a Mac (excluding those who use a mac for real work) only uses it to surf the web and do email. They can easily do those two things on an iPad or iPhone.
@compsrt ... At least on the consumer level which is why Windows Tablets should gain at least some traction I think.

Pagan jim
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Adrian, aren't people doing different things with PCs vs SmartPhones?
Dietrich T. Schmitz * Your Linux Advocate 11th Feb
Generically speaking, I use 'PC' to include, PCs, Laptops, Notebooks, Ultras, Netbooks, but not Smartphones or Tablets such as the iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab.

I don't see this statistic being meaningful other than more people today can afford a smartphone than a MacBook. But the use cases are entirely different.
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Apple's PCs are generally fading away. Besides their desktops computers aren't all that great looking. The only Apple desktop product worth dawn is the Mac Mini.
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Have some data with the BS
Robert Hahn 11th Feb
    Apple's PCs are generally fading away.
On what planet? Here on Earth, Apple's PCs are only ones showing any growth at all. They're up about 17% year-over-year. Wintel PCs are flat to down depending on region.
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@akear ... Cause I can't find any trace in your post of actual thought. Apple's selling more Macintosh's than ever before so again what are you saying!?!

Pagan jim
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There appears to be a hidden assumption in the claim that iOS devices are cannibalizing Macs. Concluding that from market share data can only be done if we know that the market itself is not growing. If web traffic in general is growing, then concluding anything about people substituting one device for another based on shifting market shares is highly questionable math.
Because Apple's last reporting period was Q1 fiscal year 2012 when they sold 52.47 million iPhones and iPods, plus 5.2 million Macintoshes. And since those are both all-time high numbers, nothing is "cannibalizing" anything. Macs are simply taking less of a bigger pie which another Apple product, with an even higher margin, is taking more of. Hardly bad news for Apple in any way!
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It's not surprising.Mac OS was never really important.

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