The old iPad 2 is still the most used iPad
That's a surprising metric coming out of new research from Localytics, and pertinent as we expect to see new iPads from Apple.
According to the study's data, the now discontinued iPad 2 has the largest share of online use at 27%. Both the iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina Display, released last year, have a 14% and 5% share respectively.
The study also notes that people use their tablets and smartphones in fundamentally different ways. For most, their smartphone is always with them, whereas their tablet usually stays at home. By having access to smartphones throughout the day, this naturally lends itself to more app launches. On average, iPhone apps are launched 36% more frequently than those on iPads.
However, the study says that iPhone sessions are typically shorter since people are generally on the go when using their smartphone. The average session length for an iPhone is 5.2 minutes, which is over a minute shorter than their iPad counterparts at 6.4 minutes (a difference of 23%). Whereas a smartphone may be used for quick news or sports updates, people typically use their iPads for longer activities such as reading or watching content. Screen size is also a factor. The larger the screen size, the more time spent in an app. It will be interesting to see if the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will change some of these iPhone numbers.
For this analysis, Localytics examined over 100 million iPhones and iPads from when the iPhone 6 was released on September 19th to October 13th.
