Friday, July 02, 2010, 03:50 pm

Apple's iPad passes Google Android in total browser usage share

By Slash Lane

More people are browsing the Web via an iPad than on an Android-powered device, according to new monthly browser usage data from one analytics firm.

In just three months on the market, Apple's iPad has come to represent 0.17 percent of all Web browser traffic tracked by Net Applications. The iPad's June total managed to exceed Android, which represented 0.14 percent of all Web browsing traffic.

Behind both of them was another iOS-powered device from Apple, the iPod touch. In June, the iPod touch took 0.12 percent of the Web browser share, according to Net Applications.

The iPad has seen a steady climb since it was released in April, notching 0.03 percent in the first month, when it was only available in the U.S. In May, the numbers tripled to 0.09 percent, only to nearly double again in June to the 0.17 percent figure that pushed it past Android.

The numbers, however, do not mean that there are more iPads on the market than Android devices. But the stats do indicate that a far higher percentage of iPad owners use their new device to browse the Web -- so many, in fact, that it has now surpassed Android in that department.

Released in early April in the U.S., the iPad immediately made a splash in the statistics tracked by Net Applications. In less than two weeks in the market, it had already tied Android and BlackBerry in Web browsing presence, but only for a few days. This week's totals show that the iPad has grown to a level where its browser was consistently larger than Android's through the month of June.


Last month, Apple's most high-profile iOS device, the iPhone, was revealed by Net Applications to carry a 33 percent share of all mobile browsers. That compared to 14 percent for Nokia's Symbian, 6 percent for Google Android, 4 percent for Research in Motion's BlackBerry, and 3 percent for Microsoft's Windows Mobile.