Android Gaining in Mobile Web Consumption
A new report from online data analytics firm Quantcast has some Android fans cheering. The numbers show just how much the landscape is changing. On the surface, it looks like a win for Apple, who's iOS has a nearly 60% share of mobile data consumption. Android meanwhile is down at a little under 20%.
When tracking the total market share of each OS, Apple has taken a hit over the last 18 months, while Android is making big gains. The iOS platform was up around 75% share in mobile web traffic in January 2009. Now it's below 60%. Android was barely at 5% last January, having now made it to nearly 20%. The story behind the data relates to the types of devices out there.
Android is still mostly just found on phones. What tablets there are don't make up much of the market. Apple's iOS on the other hand, isn't just on iPhones. There are also millions of iPods and iPads that run the same OS. Quantcast tracked 8.7 million Android devices in the US. There are about 18.3 million iOS devices out there, but only 10.7 million iPhones. So of course the numbers look a little skewed. It's going to be quite a ride as we see if the iPhone 4 can fend off the little green robot.
Image via Quantcast