Report: iPhone, iPad Now Drive More Web Traffic Than Mac OS

Reflecting trends in the larger mobile and PC markets, Apple’s iOS devices (iPhone, iPad) are now responsible for a larger share of web traffic than its Mac PCs and laptops — according to one firm.

Earlier today we were contacted by ad network Chitika, which reported that (August 2011 to February 2012) US traffic from iOS devices had passed that coming from Mac OS machines.

I then looked at Net Applications and StatCounter to determine whether the Chitika report was corroborated by these other analytics tools. One supports the Chitika findings and the other does not.

Source: Net Applications

In the chart above from Net Applications Mac has 3 percent of global web traffic, while iOS devices generate 4 percent. However, StatCounter (US only) data below show that iOS devices are still quite a bit beneath MacOS in terms of market share (14 percent to 3 percent).

Source: StatCounter

Smartphones and tablets are outselling PCs and have been for some time. Gartner, IDC and others are all consistent on this point. The following chart from Canalys shows Q4 and full year 2011 device sales on a global basis.

Canalys groups “pads” in with PCs. But if you recategorize tablets with smartphones as part of a larger “mobile device” grouping, full year 2011 global device sales look like this:

• Mobile devices (smartphones + tablets): 551 million units
• PCs (desktop, laptop, netbook): 352 million units

There is some growth in desktops and laptops but that’s far outpaced by the growth of tablets and smartphones. Accordingly, publishers and developers should continue to see more and more of their traffic coming from these devices vs. traditional PCs.