Comments on: Hmmm…Are iPhones and iPads Really As Popular As Everyone Thinks?

By: Gib Wallis

Gib Wallis — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:52:26 +0000

Dave, another interesting article. Do you have the links for your sources? I kept clicking all over to see what the source was but it was just plain text.

Although these numbers are interesting, Dave, I don’t think they answer the question you mention in your comment.

It doesn’t matter what percent of mobile phones are iPhones, but what percent of WEB-ENABLED mobile phones do, and what their web traffic is like.

The general consensus (sorry, no sources handy) is that iPhone users browse the web a lot more than people using Sidekicks or BlackBerries. And Android users are about the same.

So if you have a site with a lot of mobile browsing, you can check your analytics for the breakdown for operating systems and browsers and see if iPhone users are a noticeable market.

I have a Nexus One and before that I had various BlackBerries for years. Even though the Nexus One has webkit, I tend not to visit video heavy websites. A site like this, which has videos that one really wants to watch and listen to intently, doesn’t fit into my mobile browsing habits because I’m either on the road in a loud environment or in a bar or restaurant where I don’t want to be obnoxious watching a video. The few times I’m watching video on my phone is when it’s something I just shot myself to see if it’s worth sending to a friend or it’s a silly YouTube video to pass around.

So I think the type of web video your doing and the analytics for your user base might be more important than the number of iPhones in the world.

Flash 10.1 on Android is pretty cool. I haven’t used it for watching video much, but when I wanted to buy tickets for the movies for a discount at the movie theatre, enabling the desktop version of the site with Flash helped me make the right seating selections. Anyone with an iPhone or non-Flash device would have been stuck paying $1 more a ticket.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:41:41 +0000

@John – The point wasn’t who had what market share among individual devices. The point was how many of your web site visitors might actually be using the devices…and based on those numbers…whether or not you should worry about providing video on your site specifically for them.

By: Natasha Boyar

Natasha Boyar — Sat, 01 May 2010 07:45:49 +0000

Thanks Dave, This is really great information. Hype is so easy to create these days when you are one of the big boyz. I don’t use Apple products because they seem to have many limitations to me.

NatB

By: John

John — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:32:09 +0000

Not sure exactly what the point of this article was.

What didn’t you break things down to show Apple’s popularity (marketshare?) compared to that of other CE manufacturers rather than against the market as a whole?

I’d lay odds that any other individual CE maker (device) has a similar (if not lower) marketshare.

By: Mel Hardman

Mel Hardman — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:12:47 +0000

Fred must not understand basic math. You nailed it right on, Dave.
I too use both Mac stuff and PC stuff. In fact, my first video NLE was the AVID 8000 Media Composer…on a MAC. ($120,000 I paid for it and 4 3-gig hard drives – stacked!) AVID controlled the NLE world. Then, Apple decided to compete with its best customer and came out with its own ‘Final Cut’ video editing software. Pissed AVID off so much they migrated the AVID to PC…and only recently went to making their great editing software available on either.

Apple blows a loud horn, but your figures don’t lie! (I’ll always be grateful to Apple, though, for forcing AVID to compete price-wise.)

By: Fred@FredLight.com

Fred@FredLight.com — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:32:28 +0000

Well Apple IS the largest mobile device company in the world.

http://bit.ly/cldoU9