Android's Web share down 13% since Nov.; Apple's is up 1%

Usage numbers contradict estimates of Samsung's smartphone and tablet sales

Data: Net Applications' Feb. 1 report

FORTUNE -- According to a report issued Friday by Net Applications, the Web presence of Android devices peaked in November at 28% and has been drifting down ever since.

By contrast, Apple's (AAPL) iOS has climbed since October, after the company launched the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini.

That's quite a different story than the one being told by market research firms like IDC, which has Samsung's Android-based smartphones outselling the iPhone and Samsung's tablets rapidly catching up to Apple's iPad. "IDC says Android is the new king of tablet market share," was Thursday's headline on CNNMoney.

I was skeptical of IDC's tablet shipment numbers Thursday, given that of the major tablet manufacturers, only Apple actually releases unit sales data.

And I'm doubly skeptical today, given the trends shown in Net Applications' data above. Unlike IDC, which seems to pull numbers out of thin air, Net Applications is actually counting something: The browser data from 160 million users per month weighted geographically according to the number of users in each country. (StatCounter, a competing service, does not weigh its data geographically and gets very different results.)

How can Google's (GOOG) Android be the king of tablets and smartphones if more than 60% of Web users are on Apple devices and only 24.5% on Android?

Either a lot of Android owners are not using their devices to surf the Web -- which is certainly possible -- or someone's numbers are screwy.

UPDATE: A Strategy Analytics report that Apple in Q4 became the U.S.'s No. 1 vendor of mobile phones -- smart and dumb -- for the first time was getting a lot media play Friday morning. Given that Strategy Analytics' numbers -- like IDC's -- are coming out of some kind of black box, I'm not sure there's much here for Apple partisans to celebrate.

Posted in: Android, Apple, IDC, Net Applications, Samsung

• Apple's iPhone/iPad share of Web traffic is on the rise again

  But Android is still catching up, according to Net Applications

  FORTUNE -- Apple's (AAPL) iOS operating system dominated the mobile Internet this summer, according to Net Applications, hitting a record 65.9% share of smartphone and tablet Web traffic in August.

  But as iPhone sales tailed off in anticipation of a new model and sales of Google (GOOG) Android systems took off -- particularly with the launch of Samsung's Galaxy SIII -- Android's Web share MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 1, 2012 12:13 PM ET
  Posted in: Android, Apple, iPad, iPhone, Net Applications, StatCounter, Web share

• Net Applications: iOS Web share hit record 61.6% in Oct.

  StatCounter's number is lower, but shows Apple's mobile share surging 33.6% since July

  The presence of Apple's (AAPL) mobile devices on the Web surged this summer and early fall according to Net Applications and StatCounter, two leading mobile analytics services, although the two firms draw very different conclusions about where that leaves competing platforms.

  Net Applications, which monitors hits on its 40,000 client sites and weighs the results based on population statistics, MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 1, 2011 7:59 AM ET
  Posted in: Android, Apple, Google, iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Net Applications, Nokia, StatCounter, Symbian

• iOS's Internet market share hits a record 54.65%

  And where is Android? Still trailing Java ME, according to Net Applications

  You would think that with nearly 50% of the global market for smartphones that Google's (GOOG) Android would also dominate the Web.

  Not so, according to a report issued Saturday by Net Applications.

  When measured against other smartphone/tablet operating systems, Apple's (AAPL) iOS accounts for more than half of the visits to its clients' 40,000 websites around the world. In fact,the MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 1, 2011 12:28 PM ET
  Posted in: Android, Apple, Google, iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mobile, Net Applications, Research in Motion, Tablets

• Mac's share of Web traffic hits 13.7% in U.S., 6.45% worldwide

  Net Applications shows a 25% increase in Apple's global desktop share in fiscal 2011

  "Mac gets back-to-school bump" is the headline of a brief report Saturday in Net Applications' September survey. It notes that Apple's (AAPL) share of desktop usage, as measured by visits to its clients' websites from machines running OS X, rose 0.42 percentage points in September to a record (for Apple) of 6.45% worldwide and 13.7% in the MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 1, 2011 8:16 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Mac, Macintosh, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Net Applications, OS X, PCs

• Apple's iPad rules the Web

  Tablets are becoming increasingly visible on the Internet. 96.8% of them are iPads

  On Sunday we reported on a Net Applications' survey for June that found Apple (AAPL) devices were responsible for more than 60% of U.S.-based mobile Web browsing -- 35.2% of it on iPhones and 25.5% on iPads. See here.

  Today we want to drill a little deeper into Net Applications' tablet data.

  In their report for May they found that MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 4, 2011 12:32 PM ET
  Posted in: Android, Apple, BlackBerry, Galaxy Tab, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Net Applications, Tablets, web browser

• Report: iPad and iPhone do 60% of U.S. mobile browsing

  Of the 8.2% of Web browsing done on mobile devices in the U.S., Apple has the largest slice

  Two pie charts, drawn from Net Applications' June 2011 data, that speak for themselves. Despite the edge Google's (GOOG) Android has in market share, Apple's (AAPL) iOS devices have the largest presence on the Internet.

  Via: The Register's Rik Myslewski.

  From Net Applications: "We collect data from the browsers of site visitors to our exclusive MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 3, 2011 10:04 AM ET
  Posted in: Android, Apple, Google, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Mobile, Mobile device, Net Applications, Tablets, The Register, web browser

• Chrome browser now comfortably past 10% of market

  The Google browser showed a strong uptick over the holidays and into January.

  The latest numbers from NetApplications show that Google's (GOOG) Chrome continues to gain market share against Microsoft's (MSFT) Internet Explorer, whose share fell to 56% of the browser market.  Firefox, the number two browser, remained steady at over 22%. And Apple's (AAPL) Safari continues to grow steadily, crossing the 6% barrier for the first time, landing at 6.3%.

  Chrome and Safari are MORE

  Seth Weintraub - Feb 1, 2011 10:19 AM ET
  Posted in: Google, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Net Applications, Safari

• The iPad's weekend spike

  You can actually watch the new iPads going online in Net Applications' data

  Apple's (AAPL) international release of its tablet computer led to a spike in the device's Internet share, as shown in the graphic below.

  The iPad went on sale Friday May 28 in nine countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K.

  Between Saturday May 22 and Saturday May 29, the iPad's share of hits on MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 1, 2010 12:00 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, iPad, Net Applications

• iPhone grew more than Android in May

  Google may be gaining smartphone share, but the iPhone still dominates the Web

  Statistics issued Monday by Net Applications seem to run counter to recent reports suggesting that Google's (GOOG) Android is rapidly overtaking Apple's (AAPL) iPhone OS, starting in the U.S.

  The results are summarized in the pie chart at right, which is labeled "Total Market Share," but which actually represents share of visits to the websites of Net Applications' clients MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 1, 2010 11:19 AM ET
  Posted in: Android, Apple, Google, iPhone, Net Applications