IPad surpassed Android in browser usage share | Hacker News Reader

IPad surpassed Android in browser usage share

zdnet.com

31 pointsHagelin17 comments

I'm going to guess desktop browsers and netbooks also have more browser usage than Android. Are people surprised that a bunch of purpose-built web browsing device is used for browsing the web more than a bunch of mobile phone?

I don't find it very surprising that iPad users browse more with the device than Android users do with their phones, but I thought that the number of sold devices would more than compensate for that. So, yes, I am surprised.

Count me surprised as well, by now iOS devices make up 50% of our mobile traffic. My guess is that the market for a 'browse-from-your-couch' device was massively underestimated, even by Apple.

One of the major selling points of a SmartPhone is browsing the web so yes -- it does seem kind of surprising.

I would say the major selling points of smart phones is not browsing the web, but the use of "apps". Browsing is still mostly a pain on such small screens, not many pages are optimized for mobile.

Let's not even talk about the ultra fast depletion of the battery when browsing the internet...Or is it just mine?

Indeed, the selling point is access to the internet. More for targeted use than for extended browsing. While such browsing can be done on phones, eventually one gets a sort of "what would be better done on the bigger screen" intuition. Which is when syncing content back and forth between machines starts to shine (and comes to feel indispensable), as it lets you start internet tasks in either place without needing to consider which screen would be better long term; you just switch when the need arises.

>syncing content back and forth between machines starts to shine

What do you mean by that? Firefox Sync/Chrome Sync? I only browse at work because I can but not because I'd prefer to, personally.

Well, I wish it was more seamless and all encompassing, that would shine even brighter and I keep meaning to try such things. But even so, right now I use Read it Later as the synced list that all the devices can see. For things I'd rather not have cluttering up that list I use two kludges: QR code browser extensions to go from the bigger screens to the mobile one, and "share via email" (or IM or SMS there is barely a difference in general) to go the other way.

I would argue that the major selling point for selling any phone (smart or feature) is to use the "phone" part. Everything else comes second.

The ratio of sales vs how many browse may be an indication on how well the iPad and android phones are suited for browsing.

iPad is built for web browsing. It will get between 1%-2% market share in the next 12 months. It's possible that in the next 2-3 years, it could get as high as 5%. Android tablets should do well too.

Margin of Error +/- 2%

I seriously doubt 0% is going to happen!

Has anyone factored in demographics? Anyone question whether the people who buy an iPad are more likely to leisurely browse the web more so than a person who buys an Android device? Personally, I bought an android phone to hack on it, not to browse the web.

There is always a bigger picture, and usage statistics can be skewed any which way depending on how you look at it. Regardless, "the statistics" presented does not surprise me one bit.

I think the kind of people who would buy an Android tablet to hack it are probably going to do a lot of surfing on it if it's well suited to the task, since that demographic spends more time on the web than anybody except the Zynga addicts. If hacker types don't end up doing a lot of browsing on a tablet that's flexible enough to satisfy their hacking urges, then it's probably due to serious usability problems.

Interesting stat on a particular battle front, although I think the bigger picture shows the trend of Android winning the "devices sold" war.

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