IOS dominates Android in US mobile traffic

Chitika real time mobile traffic chart updates percentages hourly

Despite Android being a fierce competitor to iOS, it has a long way to go before catching up to the dominant operating system out there. 

Now we can see in much greater detail just how much iOS rules over Android.

As I am writing this post, iOS devices, including the iPhone, iPad and iPod, accounted for over 70% of all traffic in the past 24 hours, while Android had under 25%, with other devices barely registering at less than 5%. This according to a ChitikaNow chart, called the Mobile Dominance Tracker, which updates how much user traffic each platform is getting on an hour-by-hour basis, and what percentage of data was used in the past 24 hours, all in real time.

If you look at the hourly graph, labeled U.S. Mobile Traffic Share By Hour, you are able to see the percentage of traffic for each operating system for a specific hour of a specific day. For example, we can now know that on April 19, at 8 am, Android had just over 30% of traffic, while iOS had over 65%.

The chart also breaks traffic down by device, with the iPod consistently accounting for the smallest percentage of traffic and the iPad accounting for the most.

Chitika obtains its data by performing “an analysis of the unique impressions seen originating from mobile devices within the Chitika Ad network.” The 24-hour usage chart has a six-hour delay “to ensure maximum continuity within the data.”

"The purpose of breaking down the data into an hourly basis is to exhibit the behavioral relationship between iOS and Android, across a wide range of time from individual days, to weeks and months or even years. For example, it could be possible that businesses utilize iOS to a greater extent, causing a potential shift in use during working hours," a Chitika spokeperson told VatorNews.

The Westborough, Massachusetts based Chitika is made up of over 200 thousand sites, with clients such as Salary.com, Examiner.com, Yellowbook, Topix, Superpages.com and Servicemagic.com.

What do the numbers actually mean?

What does all this mean to the average person? Not much.

It will, however, mean a lot to advertisers.

These numbers can now tell advertisers what devices they should be focusing on most, at what times of the day.

"This information can be of great help to advertisers who wish to focus efforts across different segments of the market. The difference in key performance indicators across mobile demographics can prove invaluable in terms campaign optimization and maximizing overall ROI," the Chitika spokeperson said.

This data could also mean bad news for Android, as it is consistently, and routinely, beaten by iOS in terms of Web traffic.

In 2011, Android sold over 17 million units, but that was still less than half of the nearly 40 million sold by Apple. It is expected to pick up some of that slack in 2012, with projected sales of close to 38 million, but that still pales in comparison to the projected sales of Apple, which approach 73 million units.

Another study by Chitika, released on Friday, measured the click through rate (CTR) for both iOS and Android, finding that iOS had a slight advantage with 0.72% over 0.60% for Android.

When broken down by device, the iPad had a CTR percentage of 0.80, compared to 0.67% for the iPhone (0.67%) and 0.62% for the iPod (0.62%), all of them beating Android devices.

While Chitika’s numbers only account for websites and apps where its advertisements appear, and do not reflect the total amount of traffic at any given time, Android still cannot be happy looking like the helpless little brother, struggling to keep up with Apple.

(Image source: Labs.Chitika.com)