Ever wonder how many of the $50 and $70 on sale tablets ever get used at all? Or thrown away after a month? People don't throw away iPads, they get reused/resold/passed down. So your probably have 80-90% of all iPads sold still in circulation getting used. How many people are still using first and second gen andriod tablets regularly? Very few I imagine.
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Why are Android devices missing on the web?
- Thread starter minimo3
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Responses below in red.
- Analysts' guesses of smartphone/tablet marketshares are way off (entirely possible since no one except Apple reports unit sales/shipments). Analysts rely on calling up stores, randomly surveying a few thousand participants, or checking large distributors
I would say this is HIGHLY unlikely. What's more likely? That an analyst who's job it is to grab these numbers is "way off" or that you're assertion that they're "way off" is "entirely possible" is "way off"? Sorry, but I'm voting for you every single time.
- The majority of Android device buyers in developing countries buy it as an upgrade to a feature phone and continue to use it as primarily a phone, text messaging device, without using the advanced features like apps/web surfing etc (I've seen many examples of this first hand as I travel)
Hmm...do they have upgrades or even contracts in "developing" countries? So, you're saying the poor people in the poor countries are using upgrades to get low-end smart phones and then not using them as smart phones? I want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly.
Could it possibly be that these people in "developing" countries either don't have great data connections or don't have the money to spend on large amounts of data?
- Android users don't like to browse the web on their smartphones/tablets because of the poor experience (preferring instead to use their laptops or desktops). Its possible, but I don't think its very likely, especially since many users in developing countries may not possess laptops or desktops
Here we go again with the poor people reference. First, that it's a poor experience on Android is your opinion (I much prefer browsing the Net on my Note 2 as opposed to my iPhone 5, and not only because of the much, much larger screen).
And where is the poor browsing experience so many people here seem to talk about??? I use Boat Browser...I set the user agent to desktop...I enable flash/plug-ins...and I get the EXACT same browsing experience as if I were sitting at my PC at home. I've never understood why the browsing experience on Android is "so bad" when compared to iOS. If anything, using Safari on my iPhone makes me want to pull my hair out. Every site is mobile, flash isn't supported (I realize this is eventually going the way of the dodo, but a lot of sites still use it)...to me THAT is an awful experience.
- Android users root their device and modify their user-agent string to impersonate a different browser. Yes, some geeks do that, but its definitely not widespread among the masses
See, this is where your real inexperience is showing. You've obviously never really used Android, since if you had you'd know you don't NEED to root to accomplish using a different user agent. Many, many browsers on the Play Store have this feature baked in. Maybe do some research next time you try and start a war in the Alternatives section?
If I were to guess, I'd think its a combination of 1 and 2.
Of course you do. Why does this not surprise me?
Wow, I'm not here to argue whether Android or iOS has more market share, or is better at web browsing, or can solve world peace. I'm more than willing to accept that none of these hypotheses are correct. Perhaps you would like to offer your explanation for the disparity in web usage?
I use the "Phony" plugin with Firefox Beta, so it's probably not counting me as the user agent it switched to Firefox desktop.
Thanks for the info about Boat! Its a fantastic browser so far. However, how do you get flash working on it?
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To be honest, I don't really do much web-browsing on my iphone either. Most of my internet experience is in apps like flipboard, tapatalk and misc apps that mimic the browser experience for certain websites that I frequent.
Do these count as time spent on mobile safari?
I usually use Pulse which has its own browser. I noticed that in the chart, it also lists Opera Mini as a separate category. I used to use Opera Mini a lot on my old phone, but don't anymore. Does anyone know how these apps with their own browser shows up in these stats?
Since I got my Nexus 7, I rarely use my iPhone for internet. I use Firefox with flash installed and I enjoy using that just as much as my MacBook.
Back when I used to use it you would just need flash installed. You can easily find it in the play store if your on ice cream sandwich or older. If you are on Jelly Bean you'll need to side load it.
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I'm surprised so many here find web browsing on the iPhone so enjoyable. I actually think its pretty bad because of the screen size. The "Reader" button helps but isn't always available.
I browse the web on my iPhone quite often but only because I'm looking for information I need. I don't think I've ever sat back and just enjoyed the web on my iPhone just because I was bored. Pretty much half of my apps are there to prevent me from having to use safari on the web.
Amazon
eBay
Apple store
YouTube
Tapatalk
Weather channel
Are just some of the apps I have that I use in a browser with a larger screen device.
I'd say Chrome or the HTC One's stock browsers are definitely on par with Safari for iOS.
Sure. Can't say the same thing about the Samsung browser though.
what is wrong with samsung browser?
it supports flash, it does text reflow, supports fixed viewing font size and it can set as desktop profile, all of which are not available in ios safari.
You may need to side load Adobe flash. I've got a backup of it that I always restore, so I can't say if it works without it or not.
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I like Chrome and use it often, but I'm not very big on the One's stock browser. I hate that little app bar that pops up at the bottom. I need to see if you can disable it altogether.
NetMarketShare's (Net Applications) numbers are at odds to other web stat counters with more sites, page counting, no weighting by country, etc. E.g., W3 Schools or StatCounter:
Among other differences, NetMarketShare only looks at 40,000 websites, and they only count each visitor once a day. Meaning that if one visitor saw one page on a website, and another viewed 100 pages on that website, they count the same. In other words, the counter used for this thread doesn't actually tell us web usage, only # of their sites visited.
Other counters like StatCounter track over 3 million websites, and count each page view, giving far more of a web usage view. (And even that would overcount browsers that tend to reload pages a lot.)
It's also likely that iOS would show up more often in North America due to the dominance of the iPad in that region.
There may not be a good stat source for this, unless we had access to those internal phone logs that used to tell the carriers such statistics.
Among other differences, NetMarketShare only looks at 40,000 websites, and they only count each visitor once a day. Meaning that if one visitor saw one page on a website, and another viewed 100 pages on that website, they count the same. In other words, the counter used for this thread doesn't actually tell us web usage, only # of their sites visited.
Other counters like StatCounter track over 3 million websites, and count each page view, giving far more of a web usage view. (And even that would overcount browsers that tend to reload pages a lot.)
It's also likely that iOS would show up more often in North America due to the dominance of the iPad in that region.
There may not be a good stat source for this, unless we had access to those internal phone logs that used to tell the carriers such statistics.
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God these statistics are incredibly useless. I think the sites that produce these results have an agenda to try and show Apple is still a leader of something, other than profit share.
If you want to see "why" these stupid pie charts show Safai as the leading web browser (and therefore, must be because no one uses the web on an Android device ), here is a simple test for you.
If you are on an Android device or a Windows machine using Chrome, plug this website into Chrome and look at your results.
thismachine.info
Bet you $100 it will look something like this if you are on a Windows machine:
If you are on a mobile browser, it will look like this:
And what does this mean?
Most Web browsers use a User-Agent value as follows: Mozilla/[version] ([system and browser information]) [platform] ([platform details]) [extensions].
The components of the strings above are as follows:
Mozilla/5.0: Previously used to indicate compatibility with the Mozilla rendering engine
(Linux or Windows or OSX): Details of the system in which the browser is running. For mobile Chrome this equates to Linux, which a web sniffing bot will not be able to rectify as Android.
AppleWebKit/531.21.10: The platform the browser uses
(KHTML, like Gecko): Browser platform details
Mobile/7B405: This is used by the browser to indicate specific enhancements that are available directly in the browser or through third parties.
Do you see any reason above, why Safari might be getting more readings than it should by automated web sniffing bots?
If you want to see "why" these stupid pie charts show Safai as the leading web browser (and therefore, must be because no one uses the web on an Android device
), here is a simple test for you.If you are on an Android device or a Windows machine using Chrome, plug this website into Chrome and look at your results.
thismachine.info
Bet you $100 it will look something like this if you are on a Windows machine:
If you are on a mobile browser, it will look like this:
And what does this mean?
Most Web browsers use a User-Agent value as follows: Mozilla/[version] ([system and browser information]) [platform] ([platform details]) [extensions].
The components of the strings above are as follows:
Mozilla/5.0: Previously used to indicate compatibility with the Mozilla rendering engine
(Linux or Windows or OSX): Details of the system in which the browser is running. For mobile Chrome this equates to Linux, which a web sniffing bot will not be able to rectify as Android.
AppleWebKit/531.21.10: The platform the browser uses
(KHTML, like Gecko): Browser platform details
Mobile/7B405: This is used by the browser to indicate specific enhancements that are available directly in the browser or through third parties.
Do you see any reason above, why Safari might be getting more readings than it should by automated web sniffing bots?
Sure. Can't say the same thing about the Samsung browser though.
Oh I agree. The HTC One's browser is the first one that has me switching from Chrome. I prefer Safari on my Mac/iPad though.
Sure. Can't say the same thing about the Samsung browser though.
Actually the Samsung browser IS the default Android browser.
It clearly lists Android.
I'm not sure why iOS devices are so much more active than Android devices. Information from wifi networks at restaurants and airports also supports the same thing. I'm curious as to why.
Look at the reporting sting at the end....
This is my S3's user agent while on the stock browser.
Quote:
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.1.2; en-gb; GT-I9300 Build/JZO54K) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30
It is clearly going to be reported as Mobile Safari...
Plus just do the common sense thing in your head. Android phones have what about 70% of the marketshare? So if that is true how do you think the web usage numbers are so skewed? It is because the stock Android browsers are being reported as Safari. Google should counter this by replacing the stock browser with Chrome or something not built on Webkit.
Why would it be reported as Safari when it says Android? There is an entire category labeled as Android in the report. Do you truly believe a company that monitors platform usage would get something as simple as this wrong?
It is also backed up by tons of various other reports that say the same thing. For some reason iOS devices are just more active on the web.
Still don't see how this show not many people on Android browse the web
I can see Safari is the most popular mobile browser
The Android stock browser is not quite as popular (I assume this is what they mean by the term Android), otherwise why is an OS listed in with browsers
What about Chrome and Opera, what platform are these on? (according to another posts Chrome is not for iOS as that is counted under Safari)
These figures are for browser usage, not OS/Browser usage
I can see Safari is the most popular mobile browser
The Android stock browser is not quite as popular (I assume this is what they mean by the term Android), otherwise why is an OS listed in with browsers
What about Chrome and Opera, what platform are these on? (according to another posts Chrome is not for iOS as that is counted under Safari)
These figures are for browser usage, not OS/Browser usage
Then why would an Android device even have Safari in the reporting string?
This is my S3's user agent while on the stock browser.
Quote:
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.1.2; en-gb; GT-I9300 Build/JZO54K) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30
Thanks for the info guys.
How exactly would I side load it? Would it just be an apk download or a zip I need to install through my recovery? And I am on a Nexus 4 in case that matters.
And in response to an enjoyable browsing experience, I find that the added screen space on my Nexus 4 is a great benefit. But there is more to it than just screen size. Its also not something easily explained. But I do think it has something to do with overall OS fluidity, scroll speed, tap menu bar to go to the top, and a bunch of little things. Apple seems to have a good handle on the intangible aspects that make a device enjoyable to use. But thats not to say a larger screen wouldn't be widely accepted by the iOS community.
This should help
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1850772
Just click the link from your phone. I believe that's the latest version of flash. I'll warn you it CAN be a frustrating experience when trying to fast forward and rewind videos but they all play for me. Great for porn, or so I hear.