20% Of U.S. Web Traffic Comes Via Mobile

Sites include Apple.com , Chitika.com . Published on June 4th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

The mobile revolution is well and truly under way and new figures from online advertising network Chitika is showing just how much mobile is changing the browsing and traffic landscape.

According to data just released by Chitika, 20% of all web traffic in North America (US and Canada) is deriving from mobile devices. Around 14.6% of that traffic comes from smartphones with little over 5.6% coming from tablets. The PC still continues to hold its own as being the most popular platform for browsing and still commands a whopping 80% share of web traffic.

But that is the view at the top. At the bottom, things are getting rather interesting—at least among the less popular smartphones. The data revealed that for the first time, Windows Phone is now neck and neck with Blackberry for share of the mobile browsing market.

Apple unsurprisingly dominates the tablet market and in terms of mobile traffic, the iPad accounts for more than 95% of all browsing in the US and Canada. Other interesting developments (though not out of this study) point to the growth of mobile engagement across devices and social platform. Facebook for instance now sees 500 million active users who log on strictly through a mobile device.

Clearly mobile is the future of web browsing, and although the PC is proving quite gritty in its stance, it’s really just a matter of time before the share between the two is shifts from the present 20/80 to 80/20.