Study: iPad tallies 89 percent of tablet traffic

Apple's iPad leads in tablet traffic.

Apple's iPad is overwhelmingly dominating tablet traffic, a new report from ComScore has found.

According to the market researcher, Apple's iPad accounted for 89 percent of worldwide tablet traffic on the Internet in May, easily besting Android-based tablets and other slates.

On a country-by-country basis, iPad traffic was highest in Canada last month, accounting for 33.5 percent of all non-computer traffic. (Non-computer means anything besides a laptop, Netbook, or desktop.) Android devices were able to score just 0.4 percent market share in that category. In the U.S., the iPad represented 21.8 percent of all non-computer traffic, while Android accounted for 0.6 percent.

The iPad's much higher contribution to worldwide traffic compared with Android tablets isn't all that surprising. According to Apple, it has sold 25 million iPads since the tablet's launch in spring 2010. Moreover, iPad held 87 percent market share in 2010, according to research firm IDC. Another research firm, Gartner, said it believes the iPad will own 68.7 percent of the market in 2011. Android devices, on the other hand, will only have 19.9 percent share this year, the firm said.

ComScore's look at non-computer traffic around the world.

(Credit: ComScore Device Essentials)

ComScore also examined the smartphone market. In the U.S. last month, Android phones represented 35.6 percent of all non-computer traffic, followed by Apple's iPhone with 23.5 percent share. In most other countries, however, Android followed the iPhone in total traffic. In Canada, for example, Apple's smartphone represented 34.6 percent of all traffic in May, followed by Android smartphones with 8.2 percent share.

So, how were people getting on the Web? According to ComScore, 47.5 percent of iPhone page views occurred over Wi-Fi last month, compared with 52.5 percent over mobile networks. On Android devices, 21.7 percent of page views came through Wi-Fi access vs. 78.3 percent over mobile networks.

On the tablet side, 91.9 percent of iPad page views came through Wi-Fi access, compared with 8.1 percent over mobile networks. ComScore said 65.2 percent of Android tablet page views occurred over Wi-Fi, while 34.8 percent were tallied via mobile-network access.

The breakdown of the tablet figures may surprise some industry watchers. Tablets are inherently mobile devices, making the use of mobile networks to access the Web more likely. However, it seems that iPad owners are still very much tied to Wi-Fi.