Posted on 14 October 2011 by bec No Comments

When it comes to web browsing, the iPad vs iPhone debate is hotting up

Where is the future of mobile heading? It is tablets or smart phones? It’s a big question for digital developers who want to ensure that their designs continue to satisfy the experience of users both on the web and mobile devices.

Journalist Claire Connelly yesterday reported on US data from ComScore, which showed that iPads have overtaken iPhones as the device of choice for web browsing. The ComScore data had iPads accounting for 46.8% of traffic originating from Apple devices in August, compared to 42.6% for iPhones.

In Australia, we’re not quite at that level of iPad saturation yet.

Based on aggregated data that Bienalto analyses on behalf of our clients in both the commercial and government space, we have found that 59.1% of web traffic from mobile devices is from iPhones compared to 27.7% from iPads

Clearly, iPhones are still the winner.

But the figures are closing fast. The July to September quarter saw significant growth in iPad usage (from 22.8 during the quarter to 27.7% in September), while iPhone usage remained static.

Over the past 12 months, iPad usage has jumped significantly too from 18.5% 12 months average to 27.7% in September.

Across all board, the percentage of web traffic from mobile devices is now sitting at around 10% in Australia, meaning that nine out of ten people still prefer to surf the net via their desktops.

This local trend – coupled with the precedent set in the US – forces digital developers to create sites and applications that work on web and mobile devices.

Read the US report on the stats at Mashable.com.