The advent of increasingly versatile mobile devices has given consumers a wider range of options with which to access the Internet. The rise of smartphones and tablets are slowly changing the face of Web market share. In our latest live tracker, Chitika Insights is measuring just how these methods of Internet access are changing, by examining traffic share among smartphone, tablet, and PC users.

In the first pie chart, we look at Web traffic market share broken down by different types of devices – desktops, smartphones, and tablets. Below, we’ve cataloged some highlights from these figures as of 10:30 a.m. ET on  June 25:

  • With tablets at 9% and smartphones at 18.2%, current traffic data indicates that mobile devices comprise more than 27% of all Web traffic. Desktops make up the remainder of Internet activity, at 72.8%.
  • The traffic data also shows a rise in mobile traffic from over one year ago. In the summer of 2011, mobile devices made up only 8% of Web traffic. As mobile adoption increases, the erosion of desktop market share is likely to continue.

The following smaller three pie charts break down the share of operating systems on each device type.

  • In the tablet sphere, iOS still dominates, with 89.9% of overall tablet market share. Android tablets make up another 9.3%, with other tablet operating systems (OS) making up the remainder at less than one percent. The iPad’s enormous success in the tablet market is the likely driver for this performance disparity.
  • At just under 85% of Web traffic, Windows still leads in OS market share when it comes to desktop use. The second-largest share of the market is claimed by Mac users (13%), with Linux taking home the remaining share at 2%.
  • On smartphones, Android and iOS are almost neck and neck at 47.8% and 48.5% of market share, respectively. Together, these two make up the bulk of smartphone traffic. BlackBerry’s 2.4% and Windows’ 1.2% round out the smartphone share.

The last piece of this tracker shows hourly representation of tablet, smartphone, and desktop traffic. Through this graph, the relationship between use of devices and time of day is easily visualized. Looking at historical data for these devices highlights some distinct trends in Web usage. The periodicity of the graph shows routine spikes in mobile traffic – smartphones and tablets alike – during evening hours. The hours of 7 pm through midnight, EST, are routinely the hours that show the largest rise in mobile traffic. Additionally, weekend days show generally higher mobile usage all throughout the day, though they still exhibit the same evening peaks – an unsurprising trend, as consumers have greater access to Web-capable devices during the times in which they are most likely to be away from their computers. PC usage displays the opposite trend, peaking in the mornings from about 8am through noon and dropping off somewhat over the weekends.

This data can be a very valuable tool for advertisers and publishers. By keeping aware of consumer trends, businesses can optimize their strategies to stay in tune with the patterns of Web users.

Be sure to take a look at the latest numbers by checking out the full live tracker at: http://labs.chitika.net/webplatforms

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