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Study: 2/3 of tablet users play games on the device
ComScore has released a new study of the habits of tablet users, and it's interesting to note that like smartphones, tablet devices are more often running games than not. 67% of tablet users report that they're playing games on the devices at least once in the last month, and almost a quarter of users say they're playing games every single day. Over half of tablet users are also using their devices to browse YouTube, listen to music, or read an e-magazine or ebook. Those are all pretty expected uses of the tablet at this point (and look where the innovation in iOS 5 is happening -- right along those usage lines). But what I find most interesting about these numbers is that the iPad and tablets of its type aren't necessarily "stealing" attention from any other specific device -- it's taking time away from a number of other devices, including traditional computers, other gaming devices, and other music devices. The tablet isn't replacing anything we've got already -- it's borrowing uses from a number of other devices in our lives, and consolidating them into one screen. That's interesting. Originally, the debate for tablet adoption was really around whether you'd need a full laptop or a tablet PC. But Apple's iPad, especially, has carved out a whole other place for the tablet, as a supplementary device for a number of functions. ComScore didn't ask about using the tablet in conjuction with other devices, but I'd suspect that as people are reading on their tablets or playing games, they're also watching TV in the background, or working on other things. How we're going to use our tablet computers isn't completely narrowed down yet (obviously, software has to catch up as well, in order to
iPad has 97.2 percent of US tablet Internet traffic
comScore has determined that the iPad now accounts for more US internet traffic than the iPhone for the first time. 46.8 percent of iOS device traffic now comes from iPads, while 42.6 percent comes from iPhones. Want a more impressive figure? How about this: the iPad accounts for 97.2 percent of US-based internet traffic via tablet devices. All of its competitors account for the remaining 2.8 percent. Either this means the iPad is outselling Android and other tablets by a wide margin (something we already know is true), or else owners of competing devices just aren't using them to browse the web all that much. Or both. Either way, it doesn't paint the rosy picture of "Android ascendant" that we keep hearing. In fact, when you take off the smartphone blinders and look at all iOS devices versus all Android devices, Apple's position in the market looks far less "precarious" than various reports might lead you to believe. iOS devices account for 43.1 percent of the US installed base for mobile devices, with Android accounting for only 34.1 percent. The gap is even wider when you look at how much people actually use their mobile devices; iOS accounts for 58.5 percent of mobile traffic compared to 31.9 percent for Android. Android -- that is, all Android smartphones across all manufacturers -- may be "winning" compared to Apple's substantially smaller range of devices when looking at market share alone. By just about every other metric that matters (most of which matter far more than device market share), results like this comScore study prove Apple is in no danger whatsoever of "losing" to Android.
ComScore: Android extends lead over Apple, holds 44 percent of smartphone market
Gather 'round, everyone, because a fresh batch of ComScore numbers has just arrived. According to the research firm, Android remains in firm control of the smartphone platform market, commanding 43.7 percent, followed by Apple (27.3 percent) and RIM (19.7 percent). In fact, Google extended its share by nearly two points over last month's figures, while Apple's iOS grew by just 0.3 points, but further distanced itself from RIM, which now sits 7.6 points behind. On the manufacturing side of the equation, Samsung remains top dog, accounting for 25.3 percent of all mobile subscribers (including both smartphone and feature phone users), followed by LG (21 percent) and Motorola (14 percent). Apple, meanwhile, sits a distant fourth, at 9.8 percent, followed by RIM, which rounds out the top five with 7.1 percent market share. Number crunchers can find more fodder in the full PR, after the break.
Nielsen confirms Android on top, buyers split on next smartphone
In a recent report from Nielsen, Google snagged 40 percent of the smartphone market, while Apple captured approximately 28 percent -- up just barely .01 percentage point from last year. This report coincides with findings filed earlier this week by ComScore, citing Google with 41.8 percent market share and Apple with 27 percent, up one whole percentage point from last year. Diving a bit deeper, Nielsen found that around 33 percent of people planning to buy a smartphone in the next year want an iPhone, while another 33 percent would prefer an Android. The tie between those who want an Android v. an iOS phone fluctuated when Nielsen asked the "early adopters" within the group what kind of phone they are hoping to cop. 40 percent of "innovators" said they would like a phone on Google's OS, while 32 percent want a bite of the Apple -- leaving a mere 28 percent of self-proclaimed tech junkies desiring something else, like a BlackBerry or Windows Phone. Perhaps these figures are an indication that Google will remain on top for 2012, or will there be an upset? Only time will tell.
ComScore calls Android top dog, Apple pulls further ahead of RIM
According to ComScore, out of the 82.2 million people in the US with a smartphone (up ten percent from last quarter), Android came in first as the biggest platform yet again, capturing a whopping 41.8 percent of the market like a boss. In a not-so-close second, Apple was able to snag 27 percent, followed by RIM in the third place spot with 21.7 percent -- down 4 percentage points from last quarter. Pulling up the rear is Microsoft with 5.7 percent, and lastly Symbian with a grim 1.9 percent -- both down when compared to the previous three months. As far as US hardware manufacturers goes, Samsung is still on top with 25.5 percent of the market, while LG got 20.9 percent and finally Motorola with 14.1 percent, down 1.5 percentage points from before. Apple was able to snag some standing in the OEM space with a 9.5 percent share, while BlackBerry-maker RIM only captured 7.6 percent. As the battle wages on, looks like Androids, iPhones, and BlackBerrys (oh my) are still on top -- at least for this quarter. Check out the PR after the break for the full scorecard.
Comscore finds 6.2 percent of smartphone users scan QR codes
QR codes may be turning up in more places than ever these days, but are people actually using them? According to market research firm Comscore, at least some of them are -- 14 million in June in the US alone, to be specific, or about 6.2 percent of all smartphone users. As for who makes up that slice of the smartphone market, Comscore says that just over 60 percent are male, 53 percent are between the ages of 18 and 34, and 36 percent have a household income of $100k or more. Folks are also apparently more likely to scan QR codes at home than at a retail store, and magazines and newspapers edge out websites or product packaging when it comes to the top source of the QR code being scanned. So, not exactly an explosion in use, but still fairly impressive for a weird-looking barcode that was rarely seen outside of Japan until a few years ago.
Comscore: Android's UK market share explodes as Apple overtakes Symbian
Look at the chart above and you'll see two things happening. First, Apple has overtaken Symbian to become the top smartphone platform in the UK (with a 27 percent market share). And secondly, Android has grown 634 percent year-over-year to shoot into second place, with less than half a percentage point keeping it from the top spot (other reports already place it ahead). As you might expect, much of that growth isn't coming from folks switching from one smartphone to the other, but from new smartphone users -- Comscore found that 42 percent of all mobile users in the UK used a smartphone in May of this year, compared to just 27 percent a year ago. Of course, that also means that 58 percent of UK cellphone users are still potential smartphone users (to say nothing of those that still don't have a cellphone at all), so there's certainly still plenty up for grabs for all involved.
Study reveals Apple surpasses RIM in US smartphone share
Apple is now the #2 mobile platform in the US with 26.6% market share. Apple rose 1.4 percentage points and inched past RIM which now holds 24.7% of the US market. Similar to Apple, Android also gained market share grabbing another 5.1 percentage points to climb to 38.1% market share. Rim took the biggest plunge with a loss of 4.2 percentage points. These metrics are from Comscore's latest report which monitored smarpthone usage for the three-month period ending in May 2011. On a manufacturer basis, Apple showed the greatest gain, jumping from 7.5% to 8.7% market share. Though it's far from being the leader (Samsung is #1 with 24.8%), Apple continues to move upward while rivals like Samsung, Motorola and RIM remained steady or slid slightly. If this trend continues, the US smartphone market could become a two-horse race with Android and iOS vying for the lead. A third platform could grab the bulk of the leftovers. Right now RIM is sitting pretty in third, but if it continues its downward slide, it might lose its spot to the onslaught of Windows Phone handsets expected from the Microsoft-Nokia partnership. [Via GigaOm]
iPad accounts for 97 percent of US tablet traffic online
It's no secret that the iPad commands a serious lead in the battle for tablet mindshare, but comScore's new Device Essentials traffic-tracking service shows just how much that translates into market dominance. According to the web monitoring company, the iPad and its successor account for 89 percent of tablet internet use globally, and 97 percent here in the US. Of course, the slate segment is still young and accounts for only a tiny percentage of total traffic. And, it's worth noting, the iPad has a significant advantage in being the first to hit shelves. If you want to dig a little deeper, hit up the source link for the PR and a few more charts.
65 percent of connected apps run iOS in UK
The GSMA released its April Mobile Metrics report, which shows that 65% of devices using connected applications in the UK are powered by iOS; about 30% of devices run Android, and a meager 1% use Symbian. This report measures the number of wireless devices that have internet-connected applications. It does not take into account users who fire up their phone to make phone calls and play local games only. A broader metric from comScore shows a similar trend with the iPhone grabbing 27.6% and Android snagging 24.7% market share in April. Symbian slides into the number three slot with 23.6% of the market, and RIM is number four with 18.1% market share. Together these two reports show that Apple iOS devices are selling well in the UK, and owners are actively using them on the internet. Numbers like this should be a wake-up call for UK developers looking to break into the mobile app market. iOS should be your primary target, Android your backup.
ComScore: Android grows larger than ever among US subscribers, Apple belittles RIM
The latest ComScore results from the last quarter are in, and the US mobile device wars were hotter than ever as 13 percent more people reported owning a smartphone. Google conquered most users' territory with Android climbing just over five percent (now totaling 36.4 percent) and still claiming first for mobile software platforms. Apple's iOS destroyer took second place (at 26 percent) partially due to RIM's S.S. BlackBerry OS sinking about five percent (now 25.7 percent) to claim third, while Microsoft and HP / Palm rounded out the bunch struggling to stay in the fight with even lower single-digit scores. In the OEM region Samsung claimed first yet again (although slightly dropping to 24.5 percent), with LG and Motorola landing in second and third respectively, each keeping its place from the prior quarter. In the last two slots, Apple again bested RIM whose devices barely dropped half of a percent, but enough to let the slight growth of iDevices snatch up 4th. The source link below is waiting to be clicked if you want the full battle statistics.
Comscore report finds widening Android lead in US smartphone market, largely at RIM's expense
The percentage shift in the chart above tells most of the story here. According to Comscore's latest report, Android's share of the US smartphone market grew an impressive six percent in the three-month period ending in March to land at 34.7 percent, and RIM took the biggest hit as a result, slipping 4.5 points to a share of 27.1 percent. That's still enough to keep it ahead of Apple, however, which held its own with a slight gain to 25.5 percent. Both Microsoft and Palm / HP slipped just under a percent each to land in a distant fourth and fifth place, respectively. As for mobile OEMs, things stayed almost identical during the three month period, with Samsung, LG, and Motorola occupying the top three spots, and only Apple seeing any significant gains thanks to the Verizon iPhone launch -- although that still wasn't enough to push it above RIM for the fourth spot. Hit up the source link below for all the numbers.
iOS outreaches Android when iPod touch, iPad are counted in the mix
Some fascinating statistics have been released by comScore based on its MobiLens marketing analytics service, and the numbers show that iOS devices (including the iPad and iPod touch) outreach the Android platform by a whopping 59 percent in the US market. The comScore numbers show a total installed base of 37,868,000 iOS users in the United States, with Android OS devices lagging behind with only about 23,763,000 users. Those numbers come out to 16.2 percent (Apple) and 10.2 percent (Android) respectively for share of the total US mobile subscriber market. The installed US base of iPhones and iPod touch devices were almost equal, with both device totals approximately twice as high as the number of iPads. That statistic is amazing, considering that the iPad had only been on the market for 10 months at the time that the study was performed. comScore's senior vice president of mobile, Mark Donovan, noted that the numbers indicate that "the Apple ecosystem extends far beyond the iPhone," and that the assumption that the Apple user base is made up of "Apple fanboys" is invalid. [Was anyone assuming that? We doubt it. –Ed.] The comScore study also shows that iPad owners aren't necessarily owners of iPhones. While iPhone owners make up about 27 percent of iPad owners, close to 14 percent of iPad owners had Android phones. The numbers also show that Samsung, LG and Nokia are over-represented among iPad owners in comparison to their shares of the smartphone market. The age demographic for the iPad was a final index created by comScore, and it showed that the age profile is skewed mostly towards those in the 25-34 year old age range. Almost half of iPads are sold to Americans between the ages of 25 and 44, with another 30 percent of the Apple tablets going to the older US demographic over the age of 45. These numbers should be of interest to iOS developers, who may want to start creating apps for an older audience.
ComScore: Microsoft becomes second for online video in one month (update)
Earlier this month, we got word that Bing had surpassed Yahoo! as the world's second most used search engine, and now Microsoft's solidifying its place as runner-up, coming in behind YouTube as the internet's number two provider of streaming video, with 48 million unique viewers in February. According to ComScore's latest ranking of online video providers, the software giant went from number seven to number two in just one month, bumping Yahoo! down to third place. Of course, YouTube is still way out in front, with over 140 million visitors, but given the speed with which it leaped ahead, we'd say Bing is doing something right. Check out more online video results after the break. Update: Well, as it turns out, Microsoft wasn't number two for video in February, after all. We received an e-mail this morning informing us that ComScore made a correction to its numbers, showing VEVO as the runner-up, with 49 million unique viewers last month. That doesn't change the software giant's leap ahead -- it's still holding down third place, with 48 million -- but it certainly looks like someone's got some stiff competition. Check out the updated chart above for the new numbers.
ComScore: Android leapfrogs BlackBerry among US smartphone subscribers to take first place in market share
Last time we checked in with ComScore's report on smartphone platform market share among US subscribers three months ago, Android was doing a little happy dance as it overtook iOS for the number two spot overall. Well, the cuddly green bots have self-replicated yet again, enough to overtake RIM this time thanks in part to a 5.4 percent decline on BlackBerry's part (down to 30.4 percent in January) coupled with a 7.7 percent boost on the Android side, moving up to 31.2 percent. We imagine ComScore's next report -- covering the period through March -- will see a little boost on the iOS side thanks to Verizon's iPhone launch, but RIM's knight in shining armor might be further out; we still don't know when QNX-based phones are going to happen, after all, and devices like the Monaco don't really seem like cure-alls.
Visualized: the state of the smartphone wars
As AT&T's iPhone exclusivity reluctantly teeters on the brink of oblivion, it seems a good time to take one last look at the smartphone playground, the way it is before V-Day. The New York Times has handily done that job for us with the above chart, which simultaneously gives us a sense of scale when comparing US carriers and lays out the concentration of Android devices across those networks. It also shows a big fat bump of iOS on AT&T, making it the biggest carrier in terms of combined iPhone and Android users -- nothing shocking there, but the real fun will be in taking a look at this same data a few months from now. Will the iPhone fragment itself all over the four major networks? Will AT&T's Android stable ever be respectable? Tune in to your next installment of "fun, but mostly irrelevant statistics" to find out.
ComScore: Android jumps ahead of iOS in total US smartphone subscribers
We've seen plenty of data to show that Android is the hottest-selling smartphone OS among US buyers today, but now we have a stat point to show that it's doing pretty well in cumulative terms as well. According to ComScore's latest estimates, Android had 26 percent of all US smartphone subscribers in the quarter ending November 2010, bettering Apple's iPhone for the first time. The major victim of Android's ascendancy has actually been RIM's BlackBerry, whose lead at the top contracted by 4.1 percentage points (nearly 11 percent less than the share it had in the previous quarter). Guess those Verizon iPhones and dual-core BBs had better start arriving pretty soon.
ComScore: Facebook overtakes Yahoo, is now the third most trafficked website in the world
ComScore -- a common metric used to measure internet traffic -- is showing off some impressive stats these days. In the month of November, for instance, Facebook overtook Yahoo! for the first time in worldwide traffic, with the social network nabbing 648 million unique visitors while the portal named after Gulliver's Travels pulled in 630 million. What does this mean to? Well, to point out the obvious, it seems that while Facebook continues its epic growth, the relatively flat state of Yahoo!'s traffic is simply not enough to retain its third place spot behind Google and Microsoft's sites, which grab up places one and two consistently. One note about these ComScore statistics, just in case you're wondering about that last one: it 'groups' sites together rather than counting individual URLS, so for instance, the Microsoft sites take the number two spot en masse. In terms of U.S. traffic, Facebook still trails Yahoo! a bit, with 152 million visitors and 181 million, respectively, so if they're truly hoping for world domination, they have their work cut out for them. We're looking at you, Mark!
iPad aids 25 percent increase in online computer sales
In a report released by comScore, a digital reporting firm, online computer hardware sales have increased by 25 percent this holiday season. Handheld computing devices like the iPad drove much of that growth, according the report. This means computer hardware is the faster growing segment of holiday purchases, just ahead of consumer electronics. (Consumer electronics have grown 22 percent this season.) The reporting company called out the iPad by name, saying "handheld devices (such as Apple iPads and e-readers) and laptop computers drove much of the growth." It's an interesting choice to group the iPad, which is a tablet computer, with dissimilar devices like the Kindle or Nook. Unfortunately, comScore didn't release any numbers about how the iPad did against those e-readers. It will be interesting to see Apple's reports about the iPad after this quarter, since we know they sold nearly 4.2 million iPads in the previous quarter. [via AppleInsider]
ComScore: Android keeps chugging, BlackBerry falters, world awaits Windows Phone 7's numbers
Compared to last month's report, it's more or less business as usual in ComScore's latest smartphone market share numbers for the three-month period ending in October, but there are a few interesting points worth calling out. Most notably, RIM's decline seems to have accelerated -- they've lost a claimed 3.5 percent of the US market in the latest period compared to 2.8 percent prior, which means they're now down to 35.8 percent. Of course, that's still more than enough to keep them comfortably in first place, but it's a situation they're going to want to reverse sooner or later -- hopefully with TAT's help. Meanwhile, Apple's tacked on a slightly larger slice of the pie, but they're still holding fairly steady; Google, meanwhile, continues its stratospheric rise, tacking on another 2.1 percent since last month's numbers to hit 23.5 percent -- nipping on Apple's heels, we'd say. The most intriguing story, though, would have to be Microsoft: they're lower than before at just 9.7 percent of the market, but these figures don't include Windows Phone 7 yet -- and clearly, no one's buying WinMo 6.5 gear at this point. Should start to get interesting in the next month or two on that front.
