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The importance of mobile marketshare is overblown. People aren't searching for things to buy on their mobile phones, the searches themselves being very superfic

The importance of mobile marketshare is overblown. People aren't searching for things to buy on their mobile phones, the searches themselves being very superficial, the attention span being lower. As a result conversion rates and CPC is much lower on mobile. I also believe that this post-PC era has been nothing but bullshit. Yes, PC sales have been declining, but that's only because people stopped feeling the need to upgrade. And yes, mobile phones are here to stay, with their numbers rising and their utility growing, but if you take a look at tablets, lo and behold, sales are declining and the ones already bought are probably gathering dust. Most importantly is that Google's Android does not own 87% of the mobile market. If Apple would switch to an alternative as the default, that would be a big blow to Google. And if this move by Mozilla ends up working out without Firefox losing market share, that might end up encouraging Apple to do so.

snowwrestler 12y ago
So declining PC sales is not proof that PCs are losing popularity, but declining tablet sales is proof that tablets are losing popularity. How can the same trend mean opposite things in similar markets? Anyway, any of number of reports and studies say that the percentage of e-commerce visits and purchases from mobile devices is going up, and has been for years. Direct measurements of user activity show the growing importance of mobile.
72deluxe 12y ago
Is tablet market share really decreasing? For casual users (like my mum) she has bought an iPad and no longer even turns on her PC/laptop, let alone thinks about getting another one. I thought this was the case with most "casual" PC users who only used it for email and Internet shopping. My wife fits this category, who will never use my laptop, ever. She even does basic spreadsheeting activities on the iPad with Google Sheets. Are tablets really sat around gathering dust?
- diminish 12y ago
  I m monitoring several million MAU websites.. Smart phones are growing at the expense of tablets too. Especially the consensus on larger screen sizes boosted phone usage and cuts into tablet share.
  - 72deluxe 12y ago
    Ah OK thanks. I suppose the division between smart phone and tablet is disappearing a bit after the "phablet" revolution. I still have distinctly different sized devices for phone and tablet; that would explain my confusion. Thanks.
- bad_user 12y ago
  Sampling my own experience, both my mom and my dad are using laptops, even though both of them are as technically illiterate as they come, plus they don't even speak English. Both of them tried tablets, but it didn't work out - I don't know why, I wasn't besides them to notice. Your point is that casual PC users only need a PC for email and Internet shopping and things like that and that they would be better served by a tablet. My point of view is that this assertion isn't necessarily true.
pjc50 12y ago
Despite the best effort of the manufacturers to force obsolescence, the tablets are not gathering dust. They're very popular as a child distraction technology: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2565061/How-iPad-replaced-toy-chest-Researchers-children-play-touchscreens-traditional-toys.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2565061/How-i... My wife still uses our iPad 1 to watch Amazon Prime on, despite it being years since the last iOS update that would run on it. I'm quite happy with my Asus Transformer which is stuck on Android 4.2.
- bad_user 12y ago
  > They're very popular as a child distraction technology As the author of the comment you're replying to, I can agree with that. I also own 2 tablets, both of which are used by my 4-year old to play educational games. They are great for that. However, I'm limiting his time spent on these games and overall they are gathering dust. This is because, while they seemed useful to me at first, they are big and bulky and not good for productive work and all the use-cases I had for them (i.e. reading websites and email, watching videos, playing some games from time to time) have been fulfilled by my smartphone. And here's the problem with a tablet - I always have my smartphone with me, whereas for a tablet I have to make the conscious decision of taking it with me wherever I go. And if I have to make such a decision, I would rather take my 13-inch MacBook. Of course, one could talk about a convergence of smartphones and tablets. Heck, I just bought a Nexus 6 last week, which is a freakishly big 6-inch phone. And I love it, precisely because it lets me do things that are comfortable to do on a tablet. But here's the problem that I'm seeing, from personal experience of course - screen size matters a lot when speaking about things you can do with a device and a 6-inch phone is already too big to fit in my jeans pockets. I'm not seeing phones getting any bigger than that, because of portability. I love my Nexus 6, but I'm already wondering about how I'll carry it with me in the summer. But 6 inches is also too small for many use-cases. This translates in my mind in one thing - phablets like the Nexus 6 or the iPhone 6+ will take over the tablets market-share. But because of their size, PCs and laptops will still rule supreme, these classes of products (smartphones and laptops/PCs) being actually complementary.
  - merrua 12y ago

snowwrestler 12y ago

So declining PC sales is not proof that PCs are losing popularity, but declining tablet sales is proof that tablets are losing popularity. How can the same trend mean opposite things in similar markets? Anyway, any of number of reports and studies say that the percentage of e-commerce visits and purchases from mobile devices is going up, and has been for years. Direct measurements of user activity show the growing importance of mobile.

72deluxe 12y ago

Is tablet market share really decreasing? For casual users (like my mum) she has bought an iPad and no longer even turns on her PC/laptop, let alone thinks about getting another one. I thought this was the case with most "casual" PC users who only used it for email and Internet shopping. My wife fits this category, who will never use my laptop, ever. She even does basic spreadsheeting activities on the iPad with Google Sheets. Are tablets really sat around gathering dust?

diminish 12y ago
I m monitoring several million MAU websites.. Smart phones are growing at the expense of tablets too. Especially the consensus on larger screen sizes boosted phone usage and cuts into tablet share.
- 72deluxe 12y ago
  Ah OK thanks. I suppose the division between smart phone and tablet is disappearing a bit after the "phablet" revolution. I still have distinctly different sized devices for phone and tablet; that would explain my confusion. Thanks.
bad_user 12y ago
Sampling my own experience, both my mom and my dad are using laptops, even though both of them are as technically illiterate as they come, plus they don't even speak English. Both of them tried tablets, but it didn't work out - I don't know why, I wasn't besides them to notice. Your point is that casual PC users only need a PC for email and Internet shopping and things like that and that they would be better served by a tablet. My point of view is that this assertion isn't necessarily true.

pjc50 12y ago

Despite the best effort of the manufacturers to force obsolescence, the tablets are not gathering dust. They're very popular as a child distraction technology: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2565061/How-iPad-replaced-toy-chest-Researchers-children-play-touchscreens-traditional-toys.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2565061/How-i... My wife still uses our iPad 1 to watch Amazon Prime on, despite it being years since the last iOS update that would run on it. I'm quite happy with my Asus Transformer which is stuck on Android 4.2.

bad_user 12y ago
> They're very popular as a child distraction technology As the author of the comment you're replying to, I can agree with that. I also own 2 tablets, both of which are used by my 4-year old to play educational games. They are great for that. However, I'm limiting his time spent on these games and overall they are gathering dust. This is because, while they seemed useful to me at first, they are big and bulky and not good for productive work and all the use-cases I had for them (i.e. reading websites and email, watching videos, playing some games from time to time) have been fulfilled by my smartphone. And here's the problem with a tablet - I always have my smartphone with me, whereas for a tablet I have to make the conscious decision of taking it with me wherever I go. And if I have to make such a decision, I would rather take my 13-inch MacBook. Of course, one could talk about a convergence of smartphones and tablets. Heck, I just bought a Nexus 6 last week, which is a freakishly big 6-inch phone. And I love it, precisely because it lets me do things that are comfortable to do on a tablet. But here's the problem that I'm seeing, from personal experience of course - screen size matters a lot when speaking about things you can do with a device and a 6-inch phone is already too big to fit in my jeans pockets. I'm not seeing phones getting any bigger than that, because of portability. I love my Nexus 6, but I'm already wondering about how I'll carry it with me in the summer. But 6 inches is also too small for many use-cases. This translates in my mind in one thing - phablets like the Nexus 6 or the iPhone 6+ will take over the tablets market-share. But because of their size, PCs and laptops will still rule supreme, these classes of products (smartphones and laptops/PCs) being actually complementary.
- merrua 12y ago