Netbiscuits published the latest edition of their “Mobile Web Metrics Report” which showed a growing fragmentation among smartphones and various mobile operating systems.
The findings presented in this report are based on 8.5 billion page and content item requests that more than 3.100 different kinds of mobile devices transfer via Netbiscuits every month.
The report takes a detailed look at the fast growing fragmentation among and within smartphones and their operating systems. Further examination of the proliferation of HTML5 features on smartphones found that no more than four standard HTML5 features are supported by the majority of the top selling mobile devices.
“This report illustrates the need for brands, publishers and retailers to think beyond iPhone and Android when developing and executing a sustainable mobile strategy,” said Netbiscuits CEO Michael Neidhoefer. “There is no one device of choice or golden operating system to focus on in the mobile marketplace. It's the continued fragmentation of devices and the lack of a standard for developing and delivering rich content that makes mobile a moving target.”
Worldwide, more than 50% of website requests via the Netbiscuits platform came from smartphones. In North America, the share jumped to nearly 80%. In looking at overall smartphone traffic by operating system, Netbiscuits found that Google Android is still number one in North America while Apple's iOS continues to lead the pack worldwide.
The report highlights the variety of OS versions in the smartphone market at the same point in time and a growing number of hardware and form factors of devices running the same OS.
The data also shows that of the 17 basic HTML5 features tested, only four (Offline Web Application Support, Geolocation API, 2D Animation Rendering and Webstorage) are supported by a clear majority of the top 10 devices in North America. The other 13 HTML5 features tested are only partly supported, or not supported at all, by top devices. HTML5 adoption is worse in the United Kingdom, where not a single HTML5 feature is supported by a majority of the top 10 devices. Adoption rates in Germany, France, Spain and Singapore are similar to those in the North America, whereas Australia has seen little to no HTML5 adoption.