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 percent of website requests via the Netbiscuits platform came from smartphones. In North America, the share jumped to nearly 80 percent.
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. Microsoft's Windows Phone, whose share is minor at a global level, already ranks fourth in North America. RIM's BBOS share continues to slide in North America, but is holding steady in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and South America.
"Even though smartphones are technically much more advanced than mass-market feature phones, the data points published in the report show that they do not solve the problem of fragmentation," continued Neidhoefer. "Fragmentation hampers brands' ability to provide a consistent high-end experience to their customers across all connected devices."
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.
To understand if the churn in mobile hardware and software had a positive influence on the HTML5 capabilities of those devices used most frequently for accessing the web, Netbiscuits tested the HTML5 capabilities of top devices from seven different markets around the world.
The data 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 UK, 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.
"Clearly, the hype around HTML5, especially in the US, does not match the adoption rate," said Neidhoefer. "HTML5 is far from being the standard solution that mobile web and app developers are looking for when implementing rich UI features across multiple devices."
The problem of fragmentation in mobile is best illustrated by the proliferation of devices, based on traffic share.
Between November 2009 and May 2011, an average of 2.872 devices request mobile sites via Netbiscuits per month globally. From this number, only 2.5 devices achieved a traffic share of over 5 percent, while an average of 2.869 unique devices accounted for the rest of the mobile web requests.
On average, 37 percent of all site requests came from the dominating 2.5 devices between November 2009 and May 2011, while the device Long Tail generated an average of 63 percent in the same period of time.
"Quite simply, this report proves that in order to reach the maximum number of customers, you must optimise your mobile web program for thousands of devices, and not just two point five," continued Neidhoefer. "This will ensure that you provide the best possible mobile experience to your customers, no matter where they are, or what device they are using."
A free copy of the Netbiscuits Mobile Web Metrics Report can be downloaded at www.netbiscuits.com/mobile-metrics-report.
