In one of my most recent posts here on Multilingual Search I did a global comparison of Android and iOS by analysing KPIs such as market share, engagement, and profitability. In short, the post concluded that while Android was the undisputed leader in the smartphone market measured by market share, Google’s mobile OS lagged significantly behind Apple’s iOS in terms of both traffic and profitability.
However, recent data released by comScore – measuring smartphone and tablet usage in Argentina during March 2012 – suggests this isn’t the case in the South American country (for traffic at least):
Mobile Is Growing… Yet Argentina Is Far Behind Leading Countries
Smartphones and tablets drive a growing share of total internet consumption in Argentina, now accounting for 2.1% of all online page views, compared to 1.2% a year ago. But while non-computer device traffic has almost doubled over the past year in Argentina, there’s still a long way to go to level the playing field between itself and the leading mobile markets, where mobile traffic now exceeds the 10% threshold.
Android Benefitting From High Smartphone Consumption
More than 70% of all mobile device traffic in Argentina is generated by smartphones, way ahead of tablets accounting for just a quarter of the total mobile consumption. When breaking the smartphone traffic down according to OS, iPhones made up a mere 10.7% of the total amount of page views, severely dwarfed by Android’s 56.3% share. On the other hand, Apple’s iPad dominated the tablet market, claiming just under 80% of the total traffic.
In general, we’re witnessing a similar pattern to what was seen a couple of years back in more developed markets like the UK and the US, when smartphones were driving the by far largest chunk of the total mobile traffic. Since then, however, tablets have rapidly closed the gap in those countries, and some studies have found that tablets have already overtaken smartphones as the largest mobile traffic generator.
Consequently, if the uptake of tablets begins to outpace that of smartphones in Argentina (like has happened in many developed countries), iOS will quickly eat into Android’s lead due to its stronghold in this market. But as long as Argentinians keep skewing towards smartphones, Android is likely to continue its lead.
Immanuel Simonsen
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