Holiday Tablet Traffic Surged in 2011; iOS Gets Higher CTRs Than Android

Tablet traffic surged 229 percent over an average projection based on historical network traffic for Dec. 26, 2011, according to Jumptap. Jan. 2 saw a 263 percent boost in traffic, probably thanks to uploads of holiday photos and users getting familiar with their new devices.

According to Jumptap, the Kindle Fire experienced the biggest tablet growth throughout December – it held 10 percent of the market on Dec. 1, but finished the month with 30 percent. Apple’s iPad started December with 59 percent of the market, but finished the month with 44 percent. Other tablets started December with 31 percent of the market, but finished the month with 26 percent.

Android mobile devices saw their market share grow 21 percent in 2011 (38 percent to 59 percent), according to Jumptap. Meanwhile, iOS mobile devices saw their market share drop 7 percent (29 percent to 22 percent), while BlackBerry devices saw their market share drop 11 percent.

Jumptap also found that newer iOS versions draw higher CTRs. iOS 3 has a CTR of 0.61 percent, iOS 4 has a CTR of 0.74 percent and iOS 5 has a CTR of 0.91 percent.

The opposite seems to be true of Android versions, as Android 1.x has a CTR of 0.75 percent, Android 2.x has a CTR of 0.69 percent and Android 3.x has a CTR of 0.59 percent.

Jumptap cites Yahoo data to show that the question of apps vs. mobile sites is a matter of activities. For instance, connecting, navigating, informing and managing take place more often on apps, while entertainment, searching and shopping happen more via the mobile Web.

A separate report from Localytics examines Android’s market fragmentation. The company found that across all apps using its analytics, 73 percent of Android usage came from devices running a variant of Android 2.3. “While the build, known as ‘Gingerbread,’ is not the most recent, from a fragmentation perspective it should be good news to developers that such a large majority of users are running the same Android OS version,” according to Localytics.

The most popular screen size for Android devices is 4.3 inches, while the most popular resolution was 800 x 400 pixels.

The bottom line, according to Localytics, is that Android’s reputation of fragmentation is smaller than it seems.

“Although iOS developers only have two form factors to craft their applications for, the similarities of Android’s most-used devices should make it less of a challenge to develop for than often thought.”

Sources:

http://www.jumptap.com/holiday-tablet-traffic-jumps-229/

http://www.localytics.com/blog/2012/android-not-as-fragmented-as-many-think/