back to article Samsung takes mobile net traffic crown from Apple

Samsung devices are now the world’s dominant source of mobile internet traffic, after web-watching outfit StatCounter revealed that in June 2013 the Korean concern conquered Cupertino. In a report (PDF) styled to set up competition for browser share as an epic conflict, the researchers say “Samsung has seen its internet usage …

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  1. Charles Manning

    Linux is one or 2 percent...

    Ahem... All that Android traffic is Linux. So is just about all the traffic returning from the servers.

    Although Linux might have started on a desktop, that is not where it has found a home.

    1. frank ly

      Re: Linux is one or 2 percent...

      What you can do next is argue that iOS came from some kind of UNIX derivative and so the majority of traffic is actually UNIX traffic. It really does rule the world, quietly and without fuss.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That sudden downturn in IE

    Wasn't related to the launch of the adverts for Internet Explorer "Privacy" was it?

    Wonder how much that shot cost, seems to have taken a couple of toes off.

    1. Graham 24

      Re: That sudden downturn in IE

      I suspect part of it is related to the fact that anyone installing the latest version of Flash or Acrobat Reader for a Windows system gets Chrome installed and configured as their default browser, unless they explicitly uncheck the option.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Happy

        Re: That sudden downturn in IE

        Maybe, but if that's the case, people found a new browser they liked and sidelined IE.

        1. Matt_payne666

          Re: That sudden downturn in IE

          or, as what ive found, lots of standard users don't realise what browser they are actually using... so once chrome has been installed and setup as default the users just carry on regardless... as long as something shows their email and facebook the delivery mechanism is mildly irreverent.

          1. sabroni Silver badge
            Unhappy

            Re: That sudden downturn in IE

            Hmm, so suddenly the shitty tactic of including "optional" (ie. you need to turn them off or they are installed) bloatware alongside a legitimate install is ok? Or is it only if it's Google that this is not evil? The yahoo toolbar still sucks, yeah?

          2. Darryl

            Re: That sudden downturn in IE

            Yep, still a lot of people out there who, when asked what browser they use to surf the Web, answer 'Google'. Not because they're using Chrome per se, but because when they click an icon on their desktop, the Google home page pops up.

        2. Tom 13

          Re: people found a new browser they liked

          Doubtful.

          I've found your typical user doesn't have a strong opinion about what browser they are using. In fact, most of them can't name the browser when asked. They say "I opened Google" or "I opened MSM" or something like that. Sometimes I've even had trouble identifying which browser they are using when I ask if the started by clicking on the Blue 'E' or the orangish circle.

          It's mostly us tech types who start flame wars over which browser is best.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well

    In any race the lead changes once or twice, but lets look at the facts, there are many more Samsung phones out there than iOS ones so this news shouldn't be a surprise.

    The figures and statistics mean nothing, you could just as easily say that per model of phone or operating system, though less people own an iphone or use iOS they consume an inordinate amount of data.

    So 100,000 Samsung owners use more data than 50,000 Apple users, this isn't news.

    1. SantaClaws
      WTF?

      Re: Well

      "So 100,000 Samsung owners use more data than 50,000 Apple users, this isn't news."

      But that wasn't the case until recently.

      Spot the trend?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The figures and statistics mean nothing

      Really? Looks like they mean that Samsung are selling a fuck load more phones than Apple....

  4. Wang N Staines

    I have been enjoying my Samsung Chromebook of late ... fast & cheap for general browsing... not made full use of the Linux install yet.

    1. sabroni Silver badge
      WTF?

      Ooh, yeah, me too.

      It's time to rethink what a PC can be and discover a new kind of computer. Introducing the Samsung Chromebook Series 5.

      Deciding whether or not the Samsung Chromebook is right for you is actually really easy. The first thing you have to know is that it's cheap. Really cheap.

      At a launch price of £229/USD$330/AU$319, it undercuts most conventional laptops, and is cheaper even than the new iPad mini.

      FFS.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Flawed

    As it only looks at the built in browser, which of course works for iOS, as no other browser is allowed on iOS (except those that use Safari Webkit control, which guess what, reports itself as Safari).

    On Android, you can use other browsers, many people do, so the Android numbers only count the stock browser, and nothing more.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Flawed

      Sorry but there are other browsers on iOS and you can change the user agent, which is sent with the HTTP request, it has nothing to with what HTML renderer you use.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    People try to be "cool" by shunning established brands ("IE? thats sooooo 1990's, I use [pick one]").

    It's a right pile 'o shite!

    IE works fine for me.

    Yes for reg readers, you need other tools, but for your mother/brother/sister etc.. day to day posting of cats vids and fakebook updates, IE is fine.

    In fact when I have tried firefox or other browsers, they cause more problems than they are worth.

    With IE you know what you are getting and it does what you need it to do.

    1. cambsukguy
      Thumb Up

      What's more, when I drag a tab away from a chrome window, I get a little copy and have to guess how to place it, IE shows the full window and places better. I also found it easy to make the search/address box very small and share it with the tabs space so I get more real estate without using F11, Could not do it on Chrome so it is not intuitive (or even possible for all I know).

      All this IE bashing is pathetic, my IE10 on my Nokia 920 beat a Note II in the sunspider benchmark, much to the annoyance of the owner who ran it several more times and used different browsers desperately trying to beat it. It may have been a close run thing but they just couldn't accept it ("But mine is the best!, it's a Samsung, I've got more Ghz and more RAM, mine is bigger").

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Extra Shamsung traffic due to their Jay Z app?

    All that extra traffic must have been from the data being pumped back to Shamsung via the official Jay Z app!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Shamsung!

      That never gets old. Oh my aching sides.....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Shamsung!

        Do you prefer Samsuing?

        1. Observer1959

          Re: Shamsung!

          I like Samesong

  8. Mike G

    What they haven't said is whether they count iPad safari hits in their mobile stats, which isn't any more a 'mobile' than a laptop is. Inclusion of iPad hits would skew the percentages in Apple's favour a lot.

    1. rocwurst
      IT Angle

      Indeed. The problem with this comparison is that neither the iPad nor the iPad mini are included in Statcounter's graph. if you instead look at Statcounter's Operating system comparison instead which counts all devices, you find that iOS has a share 3x greater with 4.16% versus Android on 1.39%.

      After all, if you are going to compare operating systems, then you need to compare all devices that make up those operating systems. This is particularly true in mobile devices where so many Android devices are large screen phablets or mini-tablets themselves. How can Statcounter count 5" and 6" Android Phablets, but not the 7" iPad mini?

      Very biased stats.

  9. Mark .

    "But neither of Redmond’s unloved operating systems is generating as much traffic as MacOS, which generated 7.43% of the world’s internet traffic over the last year."

    So Windows 8 has managed to build an installed userbase close to all Macs, in just 8 months, and yet this is spun as "bad news"?

    Or alternatively, when you count every version of Windows separately, but count all the different versions of MacOS as one version, MacOS does better, only in some cases? Well, I'm shocked. I guess there are plenty of Android phones that don't sell as well as "the iphone", if I count every iphone as one device. And I guess Apple have the best selling computer if I compare every individual PC to the collective sales of "the Mac"...

    Perhaps one could have higher expectations for the OS that as a whole has 91% share, but this isn't what people said - "it'll be a fail, everyone will use Macs or Ipads" is what we heard. Interesting to see the goalposts moving - no longer "it'll be a fail" but "it hasn't outsold every Mac in existence, yet".

    Chrome is doing great as a browser, but it was Chromebooks that have yet to make any entry on the pie chart... (which I think is a shame personally, before Chromebook lovers mod me down - but it seems bad news more for Google than Windows 8, as far as new platforms go).

  10. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Comparable stats

    I think the most important information is that the figures we often hear have an incredible US bias. This was also evident in the Akamai stats until they tapped into their global data

    Looking a mobile browsers and IE isn't in the top 10. It does a little better if you look at all browsers which indicates a fair number of laptops with dongles or built in 3G.

    1. rocwurst
      Alert

      Re: Comparable stats

      Trouble is, Statcounter has a significant bias in the opposite direction:

      With 7 of the top 10 Statcounter countries by device numbers being developing nations, the stats are severely skewed towards the huge number of cheap Android devices in those countries:

      From Statcounter's FAQ:

      "In June 2013, our global sample for mobile devices consisted of over 2.6 billion page views. The ten countries with the largest individual sample sizes are listed below:

      672 million - India

      560 million - United States

      125 million - Turkey

      120 million - Indonesia

      102 million - United Kingdom

      62 million - Canada

      54 million - Thailand

      53 million - South Korea

      46 million - Brazil

      45 million - Malaysia"

  11. Jackie-Pooh

    More Sudden Downturn

    I agree with Graham 4's comment - that current trick of putting little 'extras' on common downloads is genuinely annoying - but profitable for the marketers. Question - how many 'toolbars' can you stack before browsing becomes amazingly slow??

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