Samsung Galaxy S III And iPhone 5 Web Usage Running Neck-And-Neck In North America; Smartphone Usage Dynamics Shift

Samsung and Apple are two of the most powerful players in the mobile industry as the leading manufacturers for Android and iOS devices, respectively. Both companies launched new flagship smartphones in 2012 with the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Apple iPhone 5, and each smartphone is still widely regarded as “top of the line” within the larger marketplace. Now many weeks removed from the holiday season, and as the winter months come to a close, Chitika Insights conducted a research study to examine current Web usage share statistics regarding these two large competitors.

Samsung and Apple are two of the most powerful players in the mobile industry as the leading manufacturers for Android and iOS devices, respectively. Both companies launched new flagship smartphones in 2012 with the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Apple iPhone 5, and each smartphone is still widely regarded as “top of the line” within the larger marketplace.

Now many weeks removed from the holiday season, and as the winter months come to a close, Chitika Insights conducted a research study to examine current Web usage share statistics regarding these two large competitors.

To quantify this study, Chitika Insights took a sample of tens of millions of U.S. and Canadian smartphone mobile ad impressions originating from the Chitika Ad Network, specifically during February 1st through February 9th, 2013. A user agent analysis was conducted to identify the usage rates of different devices – in this case, Samsung mobile phones and Apple iPhones. We first examined how usage rates of the Samsung Galaxy S III and iPhone 5 compare to each other:

As seen above, the amount of Web traffic generated by Samsung Galaxy S III and iPhone 5 users is a near-50/50 split, with iPhone 5 commanding a slight 1% lead over the Galaxy S III. This is a change from our last study on the subject back in October 2012, where the same comparative measurement showed the iPhone 5 having an eight percentage point lead over the Galaxy S III. Pulling back a bit, we see how usage of these devices fit within in the larger context of the North American smartphone marketplace:

Notably, the data points to iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S III users generating a combined 13% of all smartphone Web traffic in North America. Users of both companies’ smartphones as a whole generate a substantial 62.1% of overall continental smartphone Web traffic. However, this is a 1% drop from our October study, indicating there has been some more diversification, rather than uniformity, within the smartphone marketplace over the past four months. This is particularly true in regards to Apple, which held a 46% share of smartphone Web traffic in October, but has seen that share drop to 41.5% as of February, 2013. Meanwhile, Samsung’s share of smartphone traffic has grown from 17% to 20.6%.

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Owen Fay

Owen is a digital marketer at Poll the People an emerging user research and usability testing platform. Owen focuses on content creation and moving Poll the People forward through all digital marketing mediums. He is a graduate from Bryant University with a concentration in marketing, living in Boston.

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