Mobile Usage Update: iOS Users Responsible for 72% of All Mobile Traffic

Mobile Usage Update: iOS Users Responsible for 72% of All Mobile Traffic:
It looks like June is shaping up to be a likely battleground for mobile dominance, with a number of significant developments coming out of the Apple and Android communities.
June 11, 2012 marked the 30^th annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), and with it a plethora of new products and features coming out of the tech titan. One of the more notable events of the conference was the unveiling of iOS 6 and at least 200 new accompanying features.
Since its debut in late 2011, Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0, ICS) has begun to really hit its stride, making its way out to a growing number of phones and tablets. Manufacturers across the board are pumping out spec-leading devices with an increasing frequency. Samsung’s Galaxy S III is making its debut June 21, 2012 across all five major U.S. mobile carriers (as low as $199), and will be taking advantage of many of the greatest features of ICS, putting it in a position to step up toe-to-toe against the iPhone.
As the competition between iOS and Android continues to heat up, turn to the Chitika Insights Mobile Dominance Tracker, as the only available real-time source for mobile usage.

The current share of Android vs. iOS traffic depicts Apple’s mobile devices as the clear front-runners, generating almost three times (72%) the amount of traffic as their Android counterparts (26%). Apple’s iPad is responsible for putting up the lion’s share of web usage – approximately twice that of the iPhone, while the iPod makes up the meager remainder.

In terms of use on an hourly basis, iPad usage consistently trends sharply downwards during the afternoon hours only to rise again in the evening. This is the type of distinctive, behavioral trend that indicates tablet usage being overwhelmingly personal, rather than professional.

iOS 6 will undoubtedly make a splash this fall when it’s released to the iPad and a rumored iPhone5. However, it is important to note that despite boasting a list of impressive features, many of these updates and upgrades are already in place on ICS powered devices. This may not prove to be a problem for Apple, though, as the fragmentation of Android’s platform continues to remain an issue for the OS.
Continued fragmentation of Android can prevent many users from accessing some of the latest features and upgrades available from ICS. A prior Chitika Insights study shows that as of March, 2012 only 1.5% of all Android users were running the OS.  Apple, which traditionally has been quite good at ensuring as many people as possible are running the latest version of iOS could capitalize on this weakness moving forward, to potentially increase its market share.

Stay tuned to future Chitika Insights research reports on technology and the mobile space!