New data from web analytics firm NetApplicatons shows a significant decline in Apple's share of the mobile web, with iOS devices falling to 54.9 percent in August, a 16.7 percent drop from the 65.9 percent reported during the same month in 2012. While still less than a third of the web usage, Android experienced an increase, rising eleven percent to 28.1 percent from 21 percent in 2012...
Next to email, a mobile browser is often the most-used app on a smartphone or tablet. Although Safari still rules the iPhone and iPad crowd, there is a bit of internecine warfare within the Android camp. Google's Chrome is increasingly the default browser on Android mobile devices as usage declines for the stock Android browser.
The gains in May by Chrome against the stock Android mobile browser coincide with Google's decision last year to replace the stock Android browser with Chrome on all Android devices...
Despite Apple's iPad growing 65.3 percent year over year, the company's share of the total tablet market dropped from the 58.1 percent a year ago to an IDC-estimated 39.6 percent during the first quarter of this year, largely thanks to Apple not participating in the sub-$300 segment.
The rise of these cheap tablets improved Google platform's web usage share, with Android smartphones and tablets now owning 26 percent of all web traffic, a 35 percent annual gain as measured by research firm NetApplications.
In other words, one out of each four mobile devices used on the web are Android-branded, though Apple's iPhone and iPad still account for a commanding 59.4 percent of the Internet's traffic generated by mobile devices...