According to new stats released by Chitika on last Thursday, Apple’s iPad is the most popular tablet in North America.
Chitika pegged the iPad with a share of 79.9 percent after analyzing the web traffic generated by a range of tablets in North America. That number is slightly down as compared to 81 percent observed in the September of 2013 but it inched up 1.9% from July this year.
That number does not include traffic generated from iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 because the stats were collected in September and the new iPads were announced in October. As per Chitika, discounts on the existing iPad models may have helped Apple generate bit more traffic on the web.
Here is what Chitika said in its report, “A variety of larger retailers including Best Buy, Target, and Staples discounted iPad Mini and Air models leading up to the release of two new iPads early this fall, which may have contributed to the recent share rise while Apple has stated that global iPad sales have trended down over the past few quarters, this doesn’t seem to be quite as true domestically, as IDC notes that the U.S. is driving growth in the tablet market in general.”
Thanks to its Kindle line of tablets, Amazon secured the second spot with 6.7 % which is unchanged from last year. Up from 5.1% from last September, Samsung secured third place with 6% share. Samsung is also the highest gainer as the Korean company launched 6 new tablets during the first 7 months of 2014 which is double the number that debuted throughout entire 2014.
Microsoft generated just 1.7% web traffic in the month of September 2014 which is slightly up from 1.6% last year. Due this Microsoft is at fifth spot after Google. Microsoft’s small gain didn’t include traffic generated by the it’s “laptop-like Surface Pro models” but it did benefit from Surface 2 purchases.
Commenting on what can tablet makers expect from the holiday season and beyond? Chitika said,
“With Amazon, Apple, Google, Sony, and other brands all overhauling one or more of their tablet offerings in advance of the 2014 holiday shopping season, the North American market remains tremendously competitive,” Chitika said. It added that “early January may yield the most accurate picture of the post-holiday North American tablet ecosystem.”
Chitika sampled tens of millions of online ad impressions collected on the tablets in the US and Canada during the entire month of September to collect this data.
