Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Mobile

    iPad Online Usage Drops in December as Consumers Use Different Devices

    By
    Todd R. Weiss
    -
    January 5, 2013
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Apple iPad use online dropped by 7.1 percent in December as consumers fired up the various new mobile and electronic devices they received over the holidays, which ultimately boosted the usage numbers for competing Amazon and Android devices.

      Those are the results from a new report on consumer mobile device online usage from research firm Chitika, which sampled hundreds of millions of smartphone and tablet page-view impressions from the Chitika Ad network to compile usage numbers for December 2012. The study looked at usage only in the United States and Canada from Dec. 1 to Dec. 27 for tablets and for smartphones.

      The iPad usage drop, from 86 percent of users in the study down to 78.9 percent of users, showed that consumers moved their online usage to other devices, which saw higher usage, including Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets and Samsung’s Galaxy tablets, according to Chitika.

      Kindle Fire devices had a 7.5 percent usage share for December, after a 3 percent holiday increase, while Samsung’s Galaxy tablets had a 4.4 percent usage rate, up 1.4 percent in the period, according to Chitika. Google’s Nexus tablets had a 2 percent usage rate, more than doubling from .9 percent in December, while Microsoft’s Surface tablets had a .4 percent usage rate increase, more than doubling from .17 percent during the period. Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Playbook had a .7 percent usage rate, down .02 percent from before the holidays.

      “Holiday buying brought in new devices, so people are using new things to go online,” Gabe Donnini, an analyst with Chitika, told eWEEK. “The iPad has been the undisputed leader of the tablet market since 2010, but as the market matures, with the availability of new devices at different price points, that could explain the drop in the iPad’s usage.”

      Chitika studies Web usage numbers because the figures “really give you direct insights into the accessibility and usability of different devices and platforms,” said Donnini. “These large shifts in Web usage among the major tablets can potentially be influenced by the fact that it’s the fourth financial quarter and that a lot of new devices are getting into the hands of consumers.”

      And while the December trend is interesting, it’s likely that it’s just a short-term trend inspired by the holidays and the gift-buying season, he said.

      “While short-term trends can be indicative, it’s always better to look at the long-term trends to get a better feel of the big picture,” said Donnini. “In the longer term, you can look for usage levels to buoy back to pre-holiday levels,” where the iPad will regain some of the usage share it lost in December. “It may not return fully, but there will be some movement in the other direction.”

      Chitika said it expects that the iPad’s share of tablet traffic will return to the 80 percent range—though admittedly lower than preholiday levels—as users return from vacation and browse with their new devices less frequently.

      Overall, it appears that the tablet marketplace is following the pattern of the smartphone market after the launch of Apple’s iPhone back in 2007, said Donnini.

      “In 2010, the iPhone was still the dominant smartphone platform by a wide margin, but by 2012, Android was exceeding the iPhone in terms of global smartphone sales, diversification, cheaper price points and with a wide variety of devices that were available, with some which exceeded the iPhone’s features,” he said. “We should really be looking at the tablet market under the same lens. We should be looking at this same trend to be emerging in the tablet market over the next two to three years.”

      The quick rise of Google’s Android mobile operating system is changing consumers’ mobile usage patterns, he said. “Based on the data observed in our study, Android has emerged as the operating system of choice for consumers for the 2012 holiday season.”

      In the smartphone segment, Apple’s iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy S III scored the largest Web usage gains in December, posting 1.1 percent and 1.0 percent gains, respectively, according to Chitika. The iPhone 5 usage share for the period hit 8.3 percent, while Samsung Galaxy S III usage hit 4.3 percent. Samsung’s large-screen smartphone, its 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II, saw a .17 percent usage share increase and now stands at 1 percent. Competitor HTC saw no share changes for its 5-inch Droid DNA, which stands at a .01 percent usage rate.

      Avatar
      Todd R. Weiss
      As a technology journalist covering enterprise IT for more than 15 years, I joined eWEEK.com in September 2014 as the site's senior writer covering all things mobile. I write about smartphones, tablets, laptops, assorted mobile gadgets and services,mobile carriers and much more. I formerly was a staff writer for Computerworld.com from 2000 to 2008 and previously wrote for daily newspapers in eastern Pennsylvania. I'm an avid traveler, motorcyclist, technology lover, cook, reader, tinkerer and mechanic. I drove a yellow taxicab in college and collect toy taxis and taxi business cards from around the world.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×