comScore shows iOS still in front for actual use

Despite common perception, iOS still has the absolute lead in its total installed base in the US, comScore found Monday. Helped by Apple's wide majority in the tablet space, the iPad, iPhone, and oPod touch combined made up 43.1 percent of American use this past August. Android, almost exclusively led by smartphones, was at 34.1 percent.

Loyal BlackBerry users kept it the third largest platform at 15.4 percent, but all other mobile platforms combined topped out at 7.8 percent. Most of these are likely to be Windows Mobile and Windows Phone users given its legacy.

Apple's hardware also had a disproportionately high lead in web traffic, suggesting that some Android and BlackBerry users stayed offline. iOS represented 58.5 percent of mobile web traffic both at home and at work that month, while Android was just 31.9 percent and the BlackBerry exactly five percent.

Mobile traffic was still small relative as a whole, at 6.8 of American Internet use, but it was growing through a mix of more frequent Wi-Fi hotspots and tablets.

iPads virtually control actual use among tablets, comScore found: 97.2 percent of tablet Internet use came from Apple's devices. Of those, the gender bias was leveling out at 54.7 percent male. The largest group was still early adopters, as 30 percent were between 25 to 34 and almost half, 45.9 percent, in homes making more than $100,000 a year.

News and social networking were some of the most common tasks at almost 60 percent of owner regularly using both. Just under half had bought something from the tablet and implied they were comfortable with spending money on the new platform.

Android has recently led in active sales, most of all in phones, and might close the gap with iOS as a whole over time. The gap between recent and total users still points to Google's troubles capturing anything but the phone market as well as the legacy built up by Apple shipping a year and a half earlier.

By Electronista Staff

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