Tablet Traffic Leaps Ahead Of Smartphones

According to a multimarket study, tablets have officially surpassed smartphones with respect to generating a higher volume of website traffic. 

A research study conducted by the software group, Adobe, measured 100 billion visits to over 1,000 websites across the globe with results showing that about 8% of monthly page views came from the iPad and Kindle Fire.  On the contrary, smartphones came in at 7% which marks the first time that smartphones have lagged behind tablets in this consideration. Desktop and laptop computers are still considerably higher with the official figure at 84%. 

Tyler White who works as an Analyst at Adobe suggested that “Smartphones remain much more common, but the tablet form factor makes it ideal for browsing”. 

Let’s Consider The Numbers

If we break down the various usage patterns to dig in deeper, the report indicated that the number of pages accessed by internet users is about 70% greater on average when you line up tablets with smartphones.

The role of tablets peaked in the UK at 12.2% and the US at 9.1%, where on the hand other, smartphones could be attributed to 7.4% of activity in both cases. Canada reported 8.7% and 6.8% across these same terms. When we looked at France, there was a similar theme with tablets delivering a score of 6.1%, measured against the 3.5% attributed by smartphones. Germany’s numbers were 5.7% and 4.3% across the same terms.

In the Asian market,  smartphones enjoyed tremendous success with 9.2% of traffic where tablets was 7.4%. For China, the readings came in at 3.1% and 5.9% respectively.

When you consider tablets from a commercial perspective,  they do lead the way in specific industries such as retail and auto, whereas when you consider financial services and media, smartphones are still ahead (but the gap is closing).

Mr White also claimed that ‘We know that the larger form factor of tablets makes them ideal for couch shopping. The data bears this out as retail websites receive the highest share of tablet traffic across all industries”. “Consumers all over the world are trying out their tablets for the first time and it only takes one sour website experience for them to decide to go elsewhere’

Where To From Here?

I would expect this trend to continue given the affordability of tablets will improve especially since the arrival of the iPad Mini and other low cost alternatives. We also know that it is easier to browse with a bigger screen than your traditional smartphone and it’s a perfect device for when you’re laying on the couch. From a business perspective, a number of companies have made tablets their standard working device as opposed to providing laptops purely from a mobility standpoint and given it is lighter and more practical (not to mention cooler looking). 

What are your thoughts? Do the numbers surprise you? It did for me as I was certain that more web traffic was generated from via smartphones compared to tablets but I guess we all learn something new.