Samsung overtakes Apple in terms of mobile Internet usage: Report

Looks like more people are now accessing the Internet from Samsung smartphones compared to the ones accessing it through Apple's iPhones, which marks a reversal in smartphone Internet usage patterns.

According to a new report by web analytics firm StatCounter, users accessing the Internet from Samsung phones account for 25.47 percent, overtaking iPhone users by a difference of less than 1 percent. Internet usage from iPhones was at 25.09 percent, followed by usage from Nokia users at 21.96 percent and from BlackBerry users at 3.62 percent.

It's worth pointing out that these figures are based on a sample methodology. The StatCounter code is installed on more than 3
million websites globally that allows them to track usage. According to the company these sites cover various activities and geographic locations and record over 15 billion page views to these sites, every month.

Last year, Nokia led the pack in terms of mobile Internet usage from its phones, registering a usage of 28.05 percent, followed by Apple which saw usage of 25.43 percent and Samsung on 19.46 percent.

This essentially indicates that Internet usage from Samsung phones witnessed a rise of almost 6 percent implying that more Samsung users are browsing the web from their devices. Most Samsung smartphones are powered by Google's Android operating system.

It's worth pointing out that in countries such as UK and US, Internet usage from iPhones is still more than usage from Samsung phones. While 54.84 percent of all mobile Internet usage in the US was from iPhones, only 18.3 percent was from Samsung phones. Even in the UK, Apple leads with a usage share of 47.97 percent while Samsung's share was 20.45 percent.

In terms of mobile browsers, Android leads with a share of 29.06 percent, followed by Safari (iPhone and iPod touch only) which had a share of 24.98 percent. Opera was in the third place registering a share of 16.06 percent. Chrome for Android's share was 3.23 percent.

Talking about mobile operating systems, the report reveals that Internet usage from Android was at 37.93 percent, followed by iOS which was at 25.09 percent and Nokia's Series 40 platform at 13.43 percent. Windows Phone's share was still pretty low at 1.4 percent, behind BlackBerry which was at 3.46 percent.

Labels: Apple , Internet , iPhone , mobile Internet , mobile Internet use , Samsung , StatCounter