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INTELLIGENCE REPORT
Q4 2016
We are delighted to deliver the latest Mobile Web Intelligence Report covering mobile device usage statistics
in Q4 2016 and the whole of 2016. Read the report to better understand mobile web audiences in different
corners of the globe. In this report you can learn about the popularity of various device characteristics based
on mobile web traffic collected from hundreds of thousands of partner websites using DeviceAtlas for web
optimization and redirection.
In the Q4 2016 edition we took a closer look at the share of non-human traffic detected by DeviceAtlas.
We put together a fascinating list of the most active bots in this period including their User-Agent strings.
Another field we were excited to look into was whether or not Samsungs share was affected by the Note 7s
disaster which regularly made the news in the second half of 2016. We also focused on the most used screen
sizes, screen resolutions, operating systems, phone models, and the share of LTE-capable devices.
QUICK FACTS:
Notes on methodology
All statistics in this report are based on device usage data pulled from DeviceAtlas, a device detection
solution. DeviceAtlas works by parsing User-Agent strings which are looked up in the device description
repository that includes over 34,000 unique entries. Each entry describes a web-capable device with 164
device properties (characteristics) such as device type, make, model, OS, browser, diagonal screen size,
physical screen resolution, etc. The report offers just a glimpse into whats possible with DeviceAtlas. See the
mobile analytics demo to get a better idea.
While the world of smartphones is dominated by iPhones and the Galaxy S family, the number of phone
models, phone makers, screen sizes, and screen resolutions out there is immense. To give you an idea of this
device fragmentation, we analyzed web traffic to learn the overall number of different types of mobile devices
actively used for web browsing in selected countries in Q4 2016. For example, in Q4 2016, in the USA alone,
there were 243 unique mobile device manufacturers whose devices were used for web browsing. The number
of unique phone models used for web browsing was 2,021. This underlines how important it is for companies
to have some method of reliably identifying and handling traffic from a diverse device landscape.
In the Q1 2016 report we analyzed mobile web traffic to learn about the share of non-human visitors. We
reported that bots and crawlers generated a staggering share of nearly 50% which was largely generated by
the most active bot, the MJ12bot run by the Majestic-12 Distributed Search Engine.
In the Q4 2016 edition the result is different due to an update to the MJ12bots behaviour since the last
research. The MJ12bot is still tracked by DeviceAtlas, but is not visible in this quarters stats as the bot is now
generating negligible page visits.
It clearly shows that bot activity needs to be monitored at all times. DeviceAtlas includes the isBot property
and a database of over 3,000+ bots and crawlers which allows you to report on non-human traffic and make
crucial decisions on how to address misbehaving bots.
Human (browsers)
Non-human
Human (apps)
Junk
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
18.73%
Desktop bots
Mobile bots
81.27%
The Samsung Note 7s defective battery made the news during the second part of 2016 which eventually led
to discontinuation of the device in October 2016. It seems that Samsung sales in that period were not affected
by this failure, given that the company posted a record operating profit in Q4 2016. These promising results
were possible due to solid sales of flagship products such as Galaxy S7/ S7 edge and improved profitability
of mid-to-low end models, the Korean company said.
IDCs shipment statistics werent as optimistic as the companys own figures. Samsungs market share in Q4
2016 was at 18.1% which means that it dropped by 2.3% in comparison to Q4 2015 and fell below 20% for the
first time in four years. Consequently, Apple, with 18.3% market share, got ahead of Samsung in the IDCs
sales chart covering the last quarter of 2016.
To compare the sales figures with the share of web traffic, we took a closer look at Samsungs results in
Q4 2016 based on the DeviceAtlas data to learn whether or not the Korean manufacturer was affected by
the Note 7 issues. Our findings show that Samsungs share of web traffic grew significantly during Q4 2016,
including major markets, such as Germany (+1.7%), France (+2%), USA (+2.3%), and Italy (+2.7%).
During the same period, Apples share of web traffic dropped in many markets including the USA. Countries
where iPhones were used less often to access websites included France (-2.2%), Spain (-3.6%), USA (-3.9%),
and Italy (-5%). At the same time, Apple gained some share in other markets, including Canada (+1.7%),
South Africa (+2%), and Japan (+2.2%).
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Colombia Egypt France Germany India Italy
Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Japan Malaysia Nigeria Poland Russia South Africa Spain Sweden UK USA
Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016
Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Colombia Egypt France Germany India Italy
Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016
Japan Malaysia Nigeria Poland Russia South Africa Spain Sweden UK USA
Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016
There is a huge gap between the leading two and every other manufacturer in terms of web traffic, with only
a few exceptions in local markets. For the following table we chose Huawei, Motorola and HTC to show how
their share of web traffic changed between Q3 and Q4 2016. It is apparent that the Chinese manufacturer
grew significantly during this period, while both Motorola and HTC dropped in many local markets.
Knowing the most used smartphone screen sizes in your target market can help you decide on how to
address your mobile visitors. We put together a detailed breakdown of the most used diagonal screen sizes
across selected local markets that you should pay attention to in 2017. While 5-inch and larger phones are
the fastest growing categories, 4-inch devices still make up a large part of the market which is mostly driven
by Apples devices. In the Android world, what was considered high-end in 2012 would be mid-range in 2017
in terms of screen sizes, given that very few high-quality devices are now smaller than 5 inches.
The following charts show how the share of web traffic has changed for selected screen sizes based on
website hits during Q4 2016. The trend is clear: phones with screens over 5 inches were growing fast in
2016 across all markets we selected for this comparison. While the share of 4-inch phones remains large,
it noticeably dropped in 2016. With more upcoming large-screen flagship devices, this trend will definitely
continue in the near future.
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Colombia Egypt France Germany India Italy
Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Japan Malaysia Nigeria Poland Russia South Africa Spain Sweden UK USA
Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016
The share of web traffic generated by 5 and 5.1-inch phones in Q4 2016 (pt. 1)
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Colombia Egypt France Germany India Italy
Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016
The share of web traffic generated by 5 and 5.1-inch phones in Q4 2016 (pt. 2)
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Japan Malaysia Nigeria Poland Russia South Africa Spain Sweden UK USA
Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016
In the Q3 2016 edition we reported that 720x1280 was arguably the worlds most popular smartphone screen
resolution. We also noticed that 1080x1920 and 1440x2560 were the fastest growing and may soon overtake
the leader due to the continuing trend of adding more pixels to the latest releases, even low-end phones.
In the Q4 2016 report we looked again into the most popular screen resolutions and learned that 720x1280
continues to have a very strong presence in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, India, Italy, Nigeria, Poland,
Russia, and Spain. The second most used screen resolution was the 750x1334 used in iPhone 6/6S/7 which is
winning in many developed markets, such as Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Sweden, UK, and the USA.
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Colombia Egypt France Germany India Italy
720x1280 750x1334 1080x1920 1440x2560
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Japan Malaysia Nigeria Poland Russia South Africa Spain Sweden UK USA
720x1280 750x1334 1080x1920 1440x2560
According to the latest IDC statistics covering Q1, Q2 and Q3 2016, Android was the leading smartphone
operating system. The difference in IDCs sales figures between Android and iOS was massive, between 68%
and 75% depending on the quarter.
DeviceAtlas statistics, based on real life web traffic, show a slightly different picture given that iPhones are
used for web browsing more often than Android devices. According to our data, there are 42 countries where
Android is the leading operating system getting the largest number of website hits. iOS leads in 14 countries
from the group we selected for this comparison. Below you can see that in 2016 the share of Androids web
traffic slightly increased, while for iOS it dropped.
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Android iOS
LTE is the industry standard for mobile connectivity especially in many urbanized areas where customers get
data speeds of up to 40mbps. But how prevalent are the devices that are capable of using it across the globe?
It is now very rare to release a new phone which doesnt support LTE even in the lowest price category. Some
of the most recent examples of LTE phones priced at around $100 include Huawei Y3II, alcatel Pixi 4, Lenovo
B, LG K3, and Samsung Galaxy J1.
Analyzing the Q4 2016 statistics we learned that LTE is becoming a standard feature even in emerging
markets, although there are huge differences between the share of web traffic that LTE-capable phones
generate. In the USA, Australia and Canada it is over 95%, while for Nigeria, Colombia, and Brazil it is less
than 70%. Of course, these figures only show that the devices were capable of handling the LTE protocol
but not necessarily using it when accessing websites powered by DeviceAtlas. LTE usage depends on many
factors, such as coverage, data plan, and the settings on the users phone.
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
A ia da K an en ce ny sia nd in aly ica sia na ia pt ria ia zil
US tral na U p d n a y a pa It fr us nti Ind gy ge mb ra
u s Ca Ja we Fra erm ala Pol S A R ge E Ni lo B
A S G M u th A r C o
So
In terms of flagship devices, Apple is now the only smartphone maker offering a premium 4-inch phone in the
form of the iPhone SE. In this section we compared the popularity of 4-inch, 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones
in selected local markets based on website visits in Q4 2016. We learned that in many countries, the 4-inch
iPhone is as popular as its 4.7-inch sibling, while the 5.5-inch Plus version is the least popular of all Apple
phones. Of course, pricing may be a more important factor than user preferences, given that the largest
model is up to twice as expensive as the cheapest, 4-inch model.
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Colombia Egypt France Germany India Italy
4-inch (iPhone 5/5S/5C/SE) 4.7-inch (iPhone 6/6S/7) 5.5-inch (iPhone 6 Plus/7 Plus)
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Japan Malaysia Nigeria Poland Russia South Africa Spain Sweden UK USA
4-inch (iPhone 5/5S/5C/SE) 4.7-inch (iPhone 6/6S/7) 5.5-inch (iPhone 6 Plus/7 Plus)
It goes without saying that iPhones have a very long lifespan and that their resell value is relatively high
which makes them a better investment than most Android phones. In the Q4 2016 report we looked into the
popularity of some of the older iPhone generations as well as the iPod Touch to see how long their lifespan
actually is and how much website traffic these old phones still generate. We learned that iPhone 4/4S is most
used in Russia with over 3.5% share. Its also still used in France (2.7%), Japan (2.5%), Australia (1.8%), and
Germany (1.8%). Interestingly, the original iPhone and its 3G/3GS successor still generate some share of
web traffic 8-10 years after their release. Its nearly 1% in Sweden and around 0.5% in France, Japan, Brazil,
Germany, and Italy.
The share of web traffic for older iPhones and iPod Touch in Q4 2016 (pt. 1)
3.0%
2.5%
2.0%
1.5%
1.0%
0.5%
0.0%
Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Colombia Egypt France Germany India Italy
iPhone 2G/3G/3GS iPhone 4/4S iPod Touch
The share of web traffic for older iPhones and iPod Touch in Q4 2016 (pt. 2)
4.0%
3.5%
3.0%
2.5%
2.0%
1.5%
1.0%
0.5%
0.0%
Japan Malaysia Nigeria Poland Russia South Africa Spain Sweden UK USA
The world of Android devices is highly fragmented which is especially striking if you analyze the most
popular Android phone models in selected local markets. We noticed that even widely recognized Android
smartphones rarely get over 5% web traffic share.
According to DeviceAtlas web browsing statistics, the most popular Android phones in Q4 2016 were the
premium Samsung Galaxy S5, S6 and S7 which were ranked among the top 5 phones in most countries. Its
noticeable that these premium, high-end devices get a much higher web traffic share in developed countries,
than elsewhere. In emerging markets budget-friendly options are typically more popular, including Samsung
Galaxy J5, J7, J1, A5, and A3, Motorola Moto G (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), and Huawei P8 Lite.
AFRICA
Egypt Morocco
Japan Malaysia
3 Samsung Galaxy S6/S6 Edge 1.3% 3 Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge 2.8%
EUROPE
France Germany
Spain UK
OCEANIA
Australia New Zealand
Mexico Panama
SOUTH AMERICA
Argentina Brazil
Feel free to contact us should you have any comments or requests related to the DeviceAtlas mobile web
reports by writing to info@deviceatlas.com.
DeviceAtlas allows you to target any of the 160+ device properties to build fine-grained content
optimization and detailed reports on web traffic. Get started with a free trial to test DeviceAtlas in
your environment.
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