Android's Mobile Web Consumption Share In The US Is Surging, iOS Share Dropping

Robin Wauters

Robin Wauters is the European Editor of tech blog The Next Web and lead editor of Virtualization.com. He was a senior staff writer at TechCrunch until his departure in February 2012. Aside from his professional blogging activities, he’s an entrepreneur, event organizer, occasional board adviser and angel investor but most importantly an all-round startup champion. Wauters lives and works in... → Learn More

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

Media measurement and Web analytics company Quantcast has some interesting numbers on mobile browsing in the United States, and it’s preparing to release some of those statistics, across vendors. Earlier today, the company put up a teaser blog post, showing two graphs, one of them representing the share of mobile Web consumption in the US per mobile OS.

As you can tell, Quantcast concludes Android is storming ahead, now taking up a 25 percent share of total mobile Web consumption in the US. Apple’s iOS, meanwhile, is seeing its share decline, from approximately 67 percent in May 2009 to 56 percent in August 2010.

Provided this trend continues at current rates, Android’s share should be equal to that of iOS in another twelve months, at least according to Quantcast. It’s important to note that both are still growing rapidly in absolute numbers – what we’re seeing is the relative shares shifting.

Research In Motion’s share is roughly 10 percent according to Quantcast, as much as all ‘other’ mobile operating systems combined, but showing no signs of growth whatsoever.

Clearly, the battle for dominance over the mobile Web is being fought by two companies only at this point, and their names are Google and Apple.

In a second graph, Quantcast reports that Android took share from every corner of the market last month. The company adds that it’s the operating system’s best month share gain since November 2009, when it surpassed the 10 percent share mark.

Now, we should point out that another Web measurement company, Net Applications, has just released statistics that suggest iOS dominates the mobile Web far more clearly on a global level.

According to Net Applications, devices that run the iOS operating system (the iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad) accounted for 1.1 percent of all hardware on the Internet last month, compared to a mere 0.2 percent share for Android. This suggests a 6:1 ratio in favor of iOS, looking at worldwide statistics.

It also tells us Android is making strides in the United States much faster than in the rest of the world when it comes to browsing the mobile Web, placing Quantcast’s and Net Applications’ numbers side by side.

Company: Android
Website: android.com
Launch Date: October 2003

In August 2005, Google acquired Android, a small startup company based in Palo Alto, CA. Android’s co-founders who went to work at Google included Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger), Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire), Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (one of the first engineers at WebTV). At the time, little was known about the functions of Android other than they made software for mobile phones. This began rumors that Google was planning to enter...

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Product: iPhone
Website: apple.com
Company Apple

Apple’s iPhone was introduced at MacWorld in January 2007 and officially went on sale June 29, 2007, selling 146,000 units within the first weekend of launch. The phone has been hailed as revolutionary with its bundle of advanced mobile web browsing, music and video playback, and touch screen controls. The iPhone is exclusively carried on the networks of both AT&T and Verizon in the U.S. An iPhone can function as a video camera (video recording was not a standard feature...

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Product: iPad
Website: apple.com
Company Apple

The Apple iPad, formerly referred to as the Apple Tablet, is a touch-pad tablet computer announced in January 2010, and released in April 2010. It has internet capabilities running on either WiFi or 3G, and offers an optional dock with a full size mechanical keyboard. The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. Its size and...

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Company: Quantcast
Website: quantcast.com
Launch Date: 2006
Funding: $53.2M

Quantcast is a digital advertising company specialized in audience measurement and real-time advertising. As the pioneer of direct audience measurement in 2006, Quantcast has today the most in-depth understanding of digital audiences across the web, allowing marketers and publishers to make the smartest choices as they buy and sell the most effective targeted advertising on the market. Quantcast is dedicated to making display as relevant and effective as search, and currently delivers outstanding advertising campaigns for the world’s leading’s...

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