iOS users drive more traffic than Android peers, showing platform matters

Android-based devices may be outselling those running Apple iOS, but the latest comScore report suggests there's more to market domination than sales slips.

While iOS devices represent 43.1% of the market, in the three months ending in August they accounted for 58.5% of non-computer Internet traffic, comScore found, suggesting that iOS users are heavier-than-average consumers of Internet content. Android devices, with 43.7% market share, accounted for 31.9% of traffic.

iPad traffic likewise exceeded its market share. Not only did the iPad account for more than 97% of all tablet traffic in the U.S., but iPad Internet traffic for the first time jumped ahead of even iPhones, at 46.8% of traffic share versus the iPhone's 42.6%.

comScore also found increasing mobile phone use to be driving connections over Wi-Fi — in August, 37.2% of mobile phone traffic was delivered over Wi-Fi, with this percentage rising three more points over the last three months. Tablets, which are more often sold without 3G contracts, were found to be turning more often to mobile network connections than Wi-fi, with nearly 10% of tablet traffic happening over mobile networks in August.

Still, comScore found iOS users choose Wi-Fi more often than their Android-owning peers. According to the report:

"Even within the same device type, there are marked differences in the way users connect online. Compared to Android platform users, iOS users generate a substantially higher percentage of digital traffic over Wi-Fi connections, regardless of device type. 47.3 percent of all iPhone traffic came over a Wi-Fi connection, compared with only 21.8 percent of traffic on Android mobile devices.

Similarly, a higher percentage of traffic came via mobile network access on Android tablets, compared to only 8.5 percent of traffic on iPads. The disparity between iOS and Android Wi-Fi usage could be due to multiple factors, including a wider availability of unlimited data plans for Android users and a traditionally higher propensity for iOS users to use Wi-Fi for streaming entertainment content."

iPad users favored Wi-Fi 91.5% of the time, compared with 63.1% by Android tablet owners. Similarly, iPhone owners used Wi-Fi 47.3% of the time, compared with 21.8% by Android smartphones.

As of August, Android smartphones owned 43.7% market share, followed by Apple with 27.3% and RIM with 19.7%. Android's growth — up from just 19.6% a year earlier — comScore attributes to support by a number of OEMs. Apple, it adds, thanks to adding Verizon as a carrier partner earlier this year and Sprint more recently, stands to gain still a few more points.

With device platforms and operating systems affecting user experiences and as such driving the consumption of various content, "it is increasingly important," states the firm, "to understand the full scope and reach of the platforms driving digital media consumption."