Apple's iPad owns 88% of the Global Tablet Web Traffic

Royal Pingdom ^ | 11/17/2011 | By Sam Nurmi

[Swordmaker]

Apple’s iPad owns 88% of global tablet web traffic

Posted in Main on November 17th, 2011 by Pingdom

There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Apple’s iPad is the biggest seller in the tablet space, but we have seen many iPad competitors come out over recent months, including Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Blackberry PlayBook, Amazon Kindle Fire, and many more.

However, despite all these Android tablets, according to comScore in October 2011, 95.5% of all tablet web traffic in the U.S. comes from iPad.

That is a stunning number. So, is anyone really buying all these shipping Android tablets, and what do people do with them after they buy them? Because they don’t seem to be surfing the Web.

Tablet web traffic

Numbers for how much web traffic that tablets account for are still not readily available. Here are a few examples of figures for web traffic related to iPads:

• Earlier this year we learned that iPad had close to 1% of all web browsing traffic, which put it ahead of its nearest competitor by almost 53 times. That number had in the latest stats from NetMarketshare from October 2011 grown to 1.58%.
• Ooyala reported that iPad accounted for the “vast majority of video played on a tablet in Q3 [2011].” In fact, iPad stood for 95.7% of total video hours streamed.
• In StatCounter’s data for web traffic and operating systems, it has separated out small screen devices from the operating system statistics. But tablet-sized devices remain, so this way we can see the actual share of iOS for iPad, Android on tablets, etc. Back in April 2011, iPad accounted for 1.18% of operating systems used to browse the web in the U.S. That number is 1.93% now in November.

We used the StatCounter data to calculate how the tablet market is divided today. This is the result:

In this analysis iPad accounts for almost 88% of tablet web traffic, Android for about 11% and the others trail far behind. Out of these operating systems, the only one that exists purely on tablets is iOS, but we strongly suspect that this is a good reflection of reality.

For example, there are some tablets running Windows 7 in the market, as well as some netbooks that run Android, so there’s a real mix.

Based on this it would seem that comScore’s finding that iPad accounts for 95.5% of tablet web traffic is a bit optimistic. But its number is for the U.S. market only and perhaps the very fact that we’ve reported StatCounter’s global figures explains at least some of the difference.

Tablets compared to desktops

To put things in perspective, iPad currently accounts for 1.2% of worldwide web usage for desktops and tablets according to StatCounter. This is obviously not a lot compared to desktop operating systems like Windows 7 or even Mac OS X, but as we have seen, it’s far ahead of Android on tablets.

Market share

The obvious follow-up question is to ask how this relates to each platform’s market share. John Gruber of Daring Fireball has done a good job of highlighting the complexities of comparing numbers of shipping units versus sold units. Basically, Apple reports actual sales but many companies and analysts show only numbers for shipments.

Some of the market share numbers for iPad we could find include:

• 83% of U.S. tablet sales.
• 68.3% of worldwide media tablet shipments.
• 73% of worldwide sales of media tablets to end users.
• 61% of global tablet shipments.
• 80% of tablet shipments in North America.
• In October Google mobile chief Andy Rubin said that there are “a little more than six million Android tablets out there running Google’s services,” meaning they run Google’s apps and the Android Market. Compare that with the total number of iPads sold, as reported by Apple, close to 40 million, and iPad has a market share of 85%.

If we disregard the obvious issues of how comparable these numbers really are for the sake of this exercise, iPad’s average market share is 75% and the median is 80%.

This means iPad’s market share is far lower than its share of global tablet web traffic.

iPad still king of market share and web traffic

There’s no doubt that consumers around the world are buying Android tablets but the market share is still way behind iPad, regardless of which source you look at. In our analysis this is also reflected in Android’s and iPad’s share of tablet web traffic.

But what’s really interesting is that iPad accounts for so much more of the global web traffic than its reported market share would indicate.

Do Android tablet users browse the web less than iPad users?

[Darksheare]

Don't let this happen to FR:

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[Swordmaker]

Apple iPad owns 88% of the Global Mobile web traffic... includes some interesting sales and shipment statistics―PING!

Apple iPad Ping!
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[manc]

slightly off topic so sorry. Does anyone know of a decent tablet where a kid can use it for school, use the internet, have USB ports and put in flash cards Want one for my oldest for Christmas so I can't ask him and of course I will be spending my my Christmas money at a store which celebrates Christmas not the holidays

[Swordmaker]

I’d suggest you look at the B&N Nook... but you can get all that with an refurbed iPad 1 with add ons. . . for the same pricing.

[Paradox]

Apple legitimized the tablet market. I think the iPad is a more significant product than the iPhone. They should hold the lead, while Android makes inroads slowly.

[manc]

thank you very much.

[JMS]

I’ve been looking in to the Acer Iconia which apparently allows you to use portable hard drives and flash memory. It’s heavier than the iPad and Samsung but it’s also less expensive.

[Hodar]

The iPad can have USB drives, however it will only suck documents INTO the device - you can’t export documents to the drive through USB.

However, you can upload these documents to iCloud.com (Apple’s web service), or email them from your iPad. For what you are looking for, you may want to go with Android’s Tablets.

[VicVega]

store which celebrates Christmas not the holidays

Deserves it's own post.

Let us know which stores you find. ;/)

[Hodar]

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/11/18/major_pc_makers_plan_to_concede_tablet_market_to_apple_amazon_in_2012.html

Major PC makers plan to concede tablet market to Apple, Amazon in 2012

By Sam Oliver

Published: 08:51 AM EST (05:51 AM PST)

Traditional PC makers like Dell and HP believe they have no advantages in the tablet market, and plan to phase out from competing with Apple’s iPad, along with low-end tablets from content providers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, in 2012.

Along with Hewlett-Packard and Dell, other “pure” PC makers like Acer and Asus plan to gradually exit the tablet market next year, industry sources told DigiTimes. The main reason is said to be that they cannot provide content like Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

So far Apple’s iPad has dominated the market, representing nearly all of tablets sold, and hooking in users with its vast App Store selection. But new devices from Amazon and Barnes & Noble aim to take the lower end of the market with prices less than half that of Apple’s $499 iPad, and make up the difference through sales of content like books, music and movies.

With tablet hardware prices that low, companies like Dell and HP that don’t sell content are unlikely to make a profit, as they can’t sell the hardware at a loss like Amazon is rumored to be doing with its new Kindle Fire. Industry sources reportedly said they expect devices from Amazon and Barnes & Noble will eventually be offered for free, serving as content platforms for the companies.

And even with their low prices, sales of newly launched touchscreen tablets from Amazon and Barnes & Noble were not as high as Apple’s iPad, which industry insiders see as an indication that “strong enthusiasm for tablet PCs has already disappeared.”

[manc]

there are quite a few in my town of St Augustine, saying that my county is nearly 70% republican and is the town where the first Christian prayer was ever said. Last year I got a lot of different kinds of fish and my youngest lost the fish, I went back looking to see if my youngest had left the fish at the fish mongers and he had not but the owner gave us all the same fish for nothing and wished us Merry Christmas. When I got back to my house I saw the fish my youngest had left and I called the fishmongers and told them. The owner said keep the fish , its on him call it a Christmas present Reason I'm saying it is because that is what much of this town is like and there are bill boards, stores and peopel saying Merry Christmas.

[VicVega]

Great story. We all should need to go back to Merry Christmas and quit being so PC.

[roadcat]

Do Android tablet users browse the web less than iPad users?

Yes, kind of hard to browse when shipped Android tablets are sitting in warehouses or store stockrooms, unsold. Which is why Apple's figures of sold units is more honest.

[manc]

agree, I actually go out of my way now to say Merry Christmas and if they do not say it back I ask them did you hear what I said, I said Merry Christmas it is alright you can wish me the same I don';t get offended. As for my town. When we moved down here we did a lot of research and found this was a much more republican county, infact there are no Dems in power thank goodness. Everyone speaks English which is nice to talk to others , one of the lowest crime areas in the state and just seeing that massive over 200ft cross lit up at night where the first Christian prayer was ever said in North America is nice as we know the ACLU and others cannot do a damn thing to remove it LOL. It's just a nice place to raise kids in a more traditional manner. The only negative I can think of is the very small college we have in town but thankfully the students go home At Christmas we have the night of lights, a massive Christmas tree in the square, presents at the bottom of it and Christmas carols being sung and played there. You ever get the time come on over , we see a lot of folks from TX here and even a family round the corner have just moved in LOL, yep they're conservatives too. Have a very nice weekend and the same for your family

[VicVega]

Have a great weekend and a very Merry Christmas to you and your family.

[TheOldLady]

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[Doc Savage]

You can’t use Adobe Flash! What the hell good is it! Apple pricks!

[dayglored]

>> Do Android tablet users browse the web less than iPad users?

> Yes, kind of hard to browse when shipped Android tablets are sitting in warehouses or store stockrooms, unsold. Which is why Apple's figures of sold units is more honest.

BINGO!!

"Sold" or even better, "activated", is the only honest measure of actual sales.

But ultimately, the only way to also account for the units that got bought, then put on a shelf and not used much or at all because they don't do what the buyer wanted, is.... the web stats. Imperfect, sure, but they take ACTUAL USAGE OF THE DEVICE, not just "bought it and took it home".

[Swordmaker]

You can’t use Adobe Flash! What the hell good is it! Apple pricks!

Strange... the Puffin, Skyline, and Terra and a host of other browsers all display Adobe Flash! on iOS devices, if you just have to have it. It's just not officially supported. Now, you were saying again?