Apple and iOS devices have long held the title when it comes to internet usage, with the Opera’s State of the Mobile Advertising of Q2 2012, stating that over 46.5% of mobile internet traffic originating from iOS devices, with Android trailing at a measly 24.4%. Those days may be coming to end according to Chitika in their comparison between the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the iPhone 5’s web usage.
Chitika Insights took a sample of tens of millions of North American ad impressions originating from their ad network between February 1st and 9th, 2013 and showed the two flagship phones from Samsung and Apple to be neck and neck at 49% and 51% respectively, which is essentially a 50-50 split between the two phone, which in itself is a significant jump from the last study conducted by Chitika in October last year that showed the iPhone 5 leading 56 to 44%.
When it comes to web traffic share by mobile phones as a whole we all see a significant movement where Apple has fallen from 45% to 41.5%, while Samsung has moved from 17% to 20.6%. Other things to note that the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3 make up for 13% of smartphone web traffic, and that Apple and Samsung 62.1% of the total browsing, which is a slight drop from the previous study, suggesting there is slightly greater diversification in the market, a good indicator of competition and innovation, which should help lead to ever improving devices.
The other important fact to take away from the study is that Android users don’t seem to be using their phones as basically a dumb phone, but actually do exploit the hardware and features their devices have, changing the misperception that some have when regarding Android users as being ‘out of date’. Hopefully this is a trend that we will continue to see, especially with the dilution of market of Apple and Samsung, as competition is the greatest driver of innovation.
It should be noted that North America’s usage patterns aren’t a reflection of the rest of the world. In regions such as Asia Galaxy S3 is more popular than the iPhone 5, while Apple continues to hold a slight edge in the US market.
Source: Chitika