Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone, iPod touch
iPhone and iPod touch continue to dominate smartphone web traffic
Admob has released another monthly survey of smartphone metrics, and Apple continues to look very healthy both in the U.S. and around the world. In website requests, Apple iPhones and iPod touch devices are up 4.2% from the previous month, while Nokia, still the top dog in handsets world wide, is down 3.6%.One other interesting piece of data is that half of the requests for internet data on the iPhone are coming from 3rd party apps, telling us the impact those apps are having. Apps like sports scores, news and weather apps, streaming music players etc. are really getting heavy use, not only from the iPhone but similar numbers apply to other smartphones as well.
The research paper also sees the Android phone coming on, with 2% of mobile requests in the U.S., and is the number four smartphone behind the iPhone, Blackberry Curve and Blackberry Pearl. With the iPhone combined with the iPod touch, Apple has the top devices in the world generating mobile traffic.
Admob measures the impact of various mobile phones by looking at requests for mobile ads from a network of 6,000 websites and 1,000 applications. While the numbers may not exactly reflect the universe of mobile phone use, it does show trends that are important to keep an eye on.
When you consider that the iPhone is only about 2 years old, the numbers are even more impressive.
If you'd like to read the complete report, click here.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Justin said 4:43PM on 4-24-2009
While I think that the iPhone probably does make up a great share of mobile web traffic, I'm not sure I'd trust AdMob as a source of reporting as it seems to be the primary source of advertising income on most "free" or "lite" apps in the app store. I haven't had a lot of experience with apps on a Blackberry, WInMo, etc. but I'd say that AdMob (or rather iPhone developers developing for the cheap@ss masses that we are) have skewed the data due to the sheer number of free apps that use AdMob.
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brian said 5:43PM on 4-24-2009
This is what happens when you make a phone with ultra-sleek looks, awesome user interface, incredibly fast and superb user experience....overall the most technically advanced cellphone in recent times...iphone is almost obviously no. 1
http://www.livbit.com
daniel.hummelmann said 4:45PM on 4-24-2009
I never thought that I would use my iPhone _that_ much surfing the net. And apps like easyfind certainly make it even more.
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andrew mundy said 6:18PM on 4-24-2009
i actually read this on my iphone
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Sergio Nayar said 5:04PM on 4-24-2009
Let's keep in mind that that big chunk of the pie that belongs to the iPhone is not really 100% accurate.
There are ways to change the browser identification on other phones like for example Nokia E71 (which by the way uses the same webkit as iPhone) thus web servers ID these phones as iPhones when in fact they aren't.
Just so you know... :)
Cheers!
RayanMX
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Mystic said 5:31PM on 4-24-2009
So are you saying that android phones are also 'mistaken' for iPhones? yeah I don't know if that's correct.
VanillaSpice said 9:29PM on 4-26-2009
It is not correct - 1) the Nokia E71 does not get assesed by servers as an iPhone, because 2) the browser ID string is not the only identifier sent with a request, there are also other strings and anyway 3) the number of people altering the browser ID string on their smartphone is, surely, incredibly tiny?!
Barbara Ballard said 1:10PM on 4-25-2009
Please consider that this is a list of *operating systems*. As you say in the title, "smartphone traffic." But "smartphones" are not all mobile web traffic or even all mobile phone web traffic.
I put that in quotes because there isn't a great definition; we've been using, "operating systems whose names are branded and visible to the customer."
Is this just a trivium? Not really. Look to page 6 and 7, where U.S. and worldwide traffic is listed. The number three device is ... the RAZR. Which is not reflected in the smart phone list. Nor is, I'm reasonably certain, the #4 (U.S.) or #5 (worldwide) Samsung R450.
Putting it another way. The graph above would predict that RIM (Blackberry) is the #2 manufacturer but they are #4 in this report.
And Apple, in this report, is "only" 29% of U.S. requests. Not 50%. (Nor the 66% recently made popular.) Still dreadfully important, but not what one would take away from this article.
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PhotoGuru said 11:45PM on 4-27-2009
proving once again, when you snooze cell companies, you lose- before the iPhone, cells in the US didn't compare to what was overseas in Japan- so many here begging for all the cool looks and functions of the asian models.
Then the iPhone hits, and there are 100 touch-screen, app, button-less, mp3 player phones - all copycats sharing a smaller share of the market.
Nice job Apple- eat it competition.
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iPod Touch said 12:11AM on 4-28-2009
Is this really any surprise. Have you used Safari on the iPhone? It is great and you can try it out at http://playitouch.com/
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