3 ms·

Mobile Market Share Not Equivalent to Usage Share

3 points by tapan_pandita 14y ago

tapan_pandita 14y ago
There is actually a flaw in the stats used to prove this. For market share comparisons, only phones have been used. For internet usage comparison, the all iOS devices have been used. For a fair argument, the tablet market share should be compared as well. Also, a person is much more likely to browse and consume on a tablet than on a phone.
- mouth 14y ago
  This issue has been corrected and tablets are now included in Device Sales figures. Thanks!
bunderbunder 14y ago
Plays into some speculation I made last month: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4734153 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4734153 Long story short: I think it may be inaccurate to think of the Android space as strictly a subset of the smartphone space. It seems instead that they're two (perhaps only slightly) overlapping sets.
calciphus 14y ago
I can think of a number of ways to interpret this data that don't support your conclusions: 1) Online device utilization is a lagging indicator, since the traffic data is representative of the smartphone market share numbers from about 2 years ago. This is consistent with observations that smartphone device use increases over the ownership period. 2) iOS users are engaging in more casual discovery on their devices, and as such hitting more of the reporting sites in these statistics. 3) iOS better serves data-hungry users, either through device selection, plans, legacy, or some other factor. 4) iOS is worse at managing data use, on-device cache, etc. 5) The "unique methodology for collecting this data" employed by NetMarketShare, which is without detailed explanation or put to scientific rigor could be misrepresenting this data. Any one of these could explain or contribute to a considerable amount of inaccurate data. A combination of them could exacerbate these effects. So unless you're arguing that people are buying Android devices and throwing them in the trash, the number of bits pulled down by devices isn't a terribly useful indicator of market penetration, just user behavior. If you want to know what platform to target for a particular service (assuming you can only target one), mass-analysis is pretty lousy. Get to know your target market and what devices they use. Unfortunately, this looks like the kind of "analysis" that starts with a belief and sets out to find data to support it.
- mouth 14y ago
  Thank you for your opinion. The reason behind this analysis was to examine why sales figures and usage figures amongst the two leading platforms did not match up. Not everything is a conspiracy. I am not a mobile developer, just an analyst (not in the tech industry) who enjoys crunching numbers on my own time. I thought I would share it to spark conversation, and I am happy to see it has. Not everyone has an agenda.

3 points by tapan_pandita 14y ago

There is actually a flaw in the stats used to prove this. For market share comparisons, only phones have been used. For internet usage comparison, the all iOS devices have been used. For a fair argument, the tablet market share should be compared as well. Also, a person is much more likely to browse and consume on a tablet than on a phone.

mouth 14y ago
This issue has been corrected and tablets are now included in Device Sales figures. Thanks!

bunderbunder 14y ago

Plays into some speculation I made last month: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4734153 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4734153 Long story short: I think it may be inaccurate to think of the Android space as strictly a subset of the smartphone space. It seems instead that they're two (perhaps only slightly) overlapping sets.

calciphus 14y ago

I can think of a number of ways to interpret this data that don't support your conclusions: 1) Online device utilization is a lagging indicator, since the traffic data is representative of the smartphone market share numbers from about 2 years ago. This is consistent with observations that smartphone device use increases over the ownership period. 2) iOS users are engaging in more casual discovery on their devices, and as such hitting more of the reporting sites in these statistics. 3) iOS better serves data-hungry users, either through device selection, plans, legacy, or some other factor. 4) iOS is worse at managing data use, on-device cache, etc. 5) The "unique methodology for collecting this data" employed by NetMarketShare, which is without detailed explanation or put to scientific rigor could be misrepresenting this data. Any one of these could explain or contribute to a considerable amount of inaccurate data. A combination of them could exacerbate these effects. So unless you're arguing that people are buying Android devices and throwing them in the trash, the number of bits pulled down by devices isn't a terribly useful indicator of market penetration, just user behavior. If you want to know what platform to target for a particular service (assuming you can only target one), mass-analysis is pretty lousy. Get to know your target market and what devices they use. Unfortunately, this looks like the kind of "analysis" that starts with a belief and sets out to find data to support it.

mouth 14y ago
Thank you for your opinion. The reason behind this analysis was to examine why sales figures and usage figures amongst the two leading platforms did not match up. Not everything is a conspiracy. I am not a mobile developer, just an analyst (not in the tech industry) who enjoys crunching numbers on my own time. I thought I would share it to spark conversation, and I am happy to see it has. Not everyone has an agenda.