BlackBerry 10, the latest operating system from BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Motion, is the company’s most ambitious attempt to match the functionality of Apple- and Google-powered smartphones after years of receding market share. The operating system made its Canadian debut on February 5th, 2013 in the form of the full-touch BlackBerry Z10 – one of two BlackBerry 10 smartphones unveiled as part of the operating system’s launch event on January 30th. The Z10 then made its U.S. debut on the AT&T; network March 22nd, 2013, before subsequent roll outs to Verizon and T-Mobile in the following weeks. To get a view into the operating system’s initial progress, Chitika Insights conducted a study examining the BlackBerry Z10’s impact on North American BlackBerry Web usage in the days since its release.
Samsung Electronics held its earnings call on Friday, April 26th, 2013. The Korean manufacturer had already posted its earnings guidance in advance of the call, sporting a quarter-over-quarter 50% growth in operating profit, and $40 billion growth in revenues since last year – both beating analyst estimates. With the tablet market being a high growth sector for both Samsung and chief rival Apple going forward, Chitika Insights looked to compare each company’s share of the overall marketplace over the past six months.
The mobile marketplace continues to grow as tablets become increasingly popular for their functionality, convenience, and portability. As part of its monthly update on the subject, Chitika Insights examined the current distribution of Web usage among leading tablet devices at the conclusion of March 2013. For comparative purposes, tablet usage shares are all mapped against shares observed over the previous three months.
Windows 8’s relatively tepid rate of adoption has been well documented, but with institutional contracts being a sizable portion of Microsoft’s PC business as a whole, the Chitika Insights team looked to examine how Windows 8 was faring on college campuses. Using the top 50 universities as ranked by U.S. News and World Report in 2013, Chitika Insights then re-ranked the schools by the percentage of Web traffic identified as coming from desktop computers running Windows 8 through the ISP associated with that university.
By analyzing search volume in the three days since the teams were decided on March 31, 2013, Chitika Insights looked to quantify the search interest for each team in the 2013 NCAA Final Four..png)
In late August 2012, Chitika Insights observed Web traffic from OS X Mountain Lion users constituting more than 10% of all Mac-based Web traffic a month following its release. At that time, Mac developers were dealing with a decidedly fragmented operating system (OS) environment, with users of four separate OS versions each generating around 10% of Mac Web traffic or more. Now nearly seven months later, Chitika Insights examined the current distribution of Web usage from Mac OS X users.
Late 2012 and early 2013 has revealed an important shift in Internet usage trends that will, undoubtedly, significantly impact online publishers in the coming months.
Recent analyst estimates point to mobile Internet usage overtaking desktop-based Web traffic as early as 2014. This isn’t a tremendous surprise. With smartphones, users have become accustomed to immediate communication and ubiquitous Web access, and with the advent of higher data speeds, users get a broadband-type Web experience via their mobile phone. Moreover, easy accessibility and portability of mobile devices supports their usage around the clock. With mobile having made Web browsing a truly 24-hour affair, Chitika Insights wanted to quantify mobile and desktop usage as a function of hour of the day.
In a March 14th, 2013 interview, on the eve of Samsung’s Galaxy S IV launch event, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller went on the offensive against the Android smartphone ecosystem as part of an interview with the Wall Street Journal. One of the major points Mr. Schiller emphasized was the fragmentation of operating system (OS) versions amongst Android devices – seemingly to contrast that with low fragmentation within the iOS marketplace. Chitika Insights decided to examine statistics from our network to investigate Mr. Schiller’s claims when it comes to the latest devices from both manufacturers.
Tablets have been one of the most popular pieces of consumer technology during the current decade, especially in regards to North America. Despite this momentum, smartphones have a nearly three year head start on the market, and are now near ubiquitous within North America and other areas around the world. With Apple's mobile devices being some of the top choices within the tablet, smartphone, and music player marketplaces, Chitika Insights conducted a study to examine the distribution of iOS device traffic.
