Web Trends Report Q2 2014

8/11/2019 Web Trends Report Q2 2014

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Netbiscuits Web Trends Report Q2 2014Based on Netbiscuits Mobile Analytics with an average sample of almost

one billion page impressions per month, this Report analyzes key trends

identified in Web traffic on mobile devices from 1 April to 30 June 2014.

This quarter, we look at how brands should prepare in order to continueoffering best-in-class Web experiences to visitors. We ll consider the

ways in which the Web on mobile devices continues to evolve, and take a

closer look at the mobile phone landscape, assessing why changes in this

space must be recognized and acted upon by marketers and developers.

Contents1 Introduction: Staying relevant

2 New vendors unlock new segments

3 The move to larger screens

4 Ending the obsession with resolution

5 Software adoption varies locally

6 Are visitors ready for the fast lane?

7 Whats next?


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59%

26% 25% 23% 21% 18% 17% 16% 14% 11% 9%

Proportion of traffic from top 100devices in the 5 to 5.9 inch category, bycountry

2%

30%

36%

15% 16%

0.1%1%

26%

39%

17%

17%

0.3%

Under 3inches

3 to 3.9inches

4 to 4.49inches

4.5 to 4.9inches

5 to 5.9inches

6 inchesand over

Q1 2014 Q2 2014

Proportion of Top 100 device traffic, by physical screen size3. The move to larger screensThe devices from Wiko and bq are testimony to another trend. Many of the popular

devices from these vendors have larger screens than the iPhone. Within the space of

three months, the physical size of mobile phone screens has increased. As The

Verge reported in April, pages from a leaked 2014 Apple planning document stated

that there was growing consumer interest for less expensive, larger screen phones,

which it didnt have . For now, the greatest increase globally came from the 4 to 4.49inch size category, due to increased iPhone 5S usage. However, the US trend is the

one to watch. It suggests that the number of users in the 5 to 5.9 inch category will

increase dramatically. This category grew its share from 21% in Q1 2014 to 25% in Q2.

The results

The average physical size of mobile phone screens being used increased in all countriesworldwide. All segments over 4 inches increased share compared to last quarter. Thefastest growth came in the 6 inch plus category. This is still a small category, but provides agood indicator of how the base is likely to evolve over the next 12 months. India tops theworld for having the largest share of traffic in this size category at 1.6% of traffic. Overall,however, South Koreans are most likely to be using the largest screens. 59% of traffic fromthe top 100 devices came from devices with 5 to 5.9 inch screens. The smallest physicalscreen sizes are to be found in Africa, with Kenya and South Africa at the foot of the list foroverall average screen size. The greatest shifts towards the 5 to 5.9 inch category didntcome from Asia, but from the United States, Canada and Australia . While in the UK, the4.5 to 4.9 inch segment gained the most in terms of traffic share.

Conclusion

The way consumer needs have changed, and the rise of a visually driven society are shown

in the desire for increased screen real estate. Consumers want more engaging experienceswith brands. We expect the decline in the sub-4 inch screen use to continue, while growth inthe 4.5 inch and above categories to gather momentum in the coming quarters. If largerscreens are synonymous with greater enjoyment of the mobile web, then South Korea easilywins in this category for best visual experience.


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0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

1136x 640

1920x

1080

960 x640

1280x 720

800 x480

960 x540

480 x320

854 x480

1280x 768

320 x240

Q1 Q2

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Brazil China UnitedStates

Japan UnitedKingdom

Below 200 200-319 320-339 340-449 Over 450

4. Ending the obsession with resolutionMobile phone vendors have been obsessed with packing screens with higher

resolutions, despite Steve Jobs observation that 326 pixels per inch (PPI) is the

optimum resolution for a mobile phone screen. We continued to see the average

pixels per inch increase in the base of devices being used, however this trend is

rapidly slowing down. Meanwhile, the most used screen dimension in mobile phone

traffic is 1136 x 640 pixels.

The results

The top screen dimensions (1136 x 640 and 1920 x 1080) both saw their share of trafficincrease compared to Q1 2014. Of the top 3, the 960 x 640 screen dimension became lesspopular. Often, the screen dimensions that are most popular will varies by country:

Conclusion

Q2 2014 saw Samsung unveil the 5.1 inch Galaxy S5, with a slightly lower PPI rating(430 PPI) than its S4 predecessor. The days of the futile resolution arms race amongsome vendors are over. As the country chart on the right shows, the best case scenariois as per the Japanese market. Vendors here have settled on between 320 and 330PPI. There are far fewer handsets with lower resolutions (and almost none under 200PPI). Color correctness and contrast should be the next big focus for vendors. Weexpect the trend towards ever higher PPIs in the base to slow in the coming quarters.

Country Most used dimension Share of trafficBrazil 800 x 480 27.04%Canada 960 x 640 27.78%

China 1280 x 720 21.33%India 800 x 480 29.48%South Africa 240 x 320 17.67%South Korea 1280 x 720 42.15%United Kingdom 960 x 640 26.11%United States 1920 x 1080 24.49%

Screen dimensions as proportion ofmobile phone traffic, Q1 2014 v Q2 2014

Most popular resolution and pixels perinch (PPI), selected countries


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75%69% 69% 68% 67% 63% 61% 60%

40%35%

29%

23%19%

17%14% 13% 11%

9%6%

2%

5. Software adoption varies locallyAndroid continued to grow its share of traffic, reaching

57% of all worldwide web traffic this quarter, up from 55%

in the last quarter.

iOS remained unchanged at 32% of total mobile phone

web traffic. Use of Android will continue to rise steadily

throughout the rest of this year, as phones from local

vendors and phones at cheaper price points start being

used to surf the web. The adoption of different Android

operating systems has implications for marketers, with a

major benefit stemming from countries with high 4.4 Kit

Kat usage.

During Q2 2014 we saw a sudden uptick in the migration to Android Kit Kat, especiallyduring May. In early June, Google launched 4.4.3, which had captured 4% of total Android

traffic before it was replaced by 4.4.4 just one month later. 4.4.2 remains the largest Kit Katversion in use. While Android users in South Korea are relatively slow in terms of migrationto Android 4.4, they have been the quickest to migrate to iOS 7.1.1, which represented 75%of traffic in June 2014, compared to 60% in the US and only 40% in China.

Conclusions

When Google launched Android Kit Kat 4.4, it offered marketers the chance to increaseengagement with users through app indexing. 6 This enabled apps to be deeply integratedinto Google web search, so a user can, for instance, jump to an app from the web withrelevant search terms already filled in. While Kit Kat has been languishing at less than 5% oftotal traffic, the benefits of this would have been relatively slight. It does however raise thequestion: is now the time for marketers to keep ahead of the curve, before competitorscapitalize on these changes first?

6 See http://readwrite.com/2013/10/31/android-44-kitkat-opens-google-search-to-more-mobile-apps for moreinformation.

57%

32%

3% 8%

AndroidiOSWindows PhoneOther

Mobile phones, % iOS traffic from version 7.1.1, June 2014

Mobile phones, % Android traffic from version 4.4 (Kit Kat),June 2014

Global traffic share byoperating system
http://readwrite.com/2013/10/31/android-44-kitkat-opens-google-search-to-more-mobile-appshttp://readwrite.com/2013/10/31/android-44-kitkat-opens-google-search-to-more-mobile-appshttp://readwrite.com/2013/10/31/android-44-kitkat-opens-google-search-to-more-mobile-appshttp://readwrite.com/2013/10/31/android-44-kitkat-opens-google-search-to-more-mobile-apps


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76%

67%

47%

45%

43%41%

37%

37%

35%

33%

33%

33%

33%

33%

33%31%

30%

28%

28%

26%

25%

25%

23%

22%

22%14%

7%

South Korea

United States

Sweden

Japan

Canada Australia

France

Switzerland

Netherlands

Austria

Denmark

Finland

Germany

United Arab Emirates

United KingdomSpain

South Africa

Belgium

Italy

Norway

Poland

Russia

Mexico

Brazil

GreeceIndia

China

6. Are visitors ready for the fast lane?The U.S., South Korea and Japan are expected to account for 78% of the worl ds high

speed fouth generation mobile network (LTE) users by the end of Q2 2014. 7 In spite of

the highly varied roll-out of 4G around the world, one thing is constant: all users

expect fast experiences and will quickly leave slow-loading websites. Even in Africa,

where users remain hugely underserved by available bandwidth. How ready are u sers

in different countries for the mobile internet fast lane?

Once again, South Korea tops the list: this time for having the most mobile phones in theTop 100 list with 4G (LTE) capability (76%). The only other country approaching this is theUnited States (67%), followed by Sweden and Japan. Users in these countries will have thebest possibility of accessing the fastest mobile networks. It also means that mobile Webexperiences for users in these countries is likely to be significantly better than elsewhere. Atthe other end of the spectrum, only 7 devices in the top 100 most used in China werecapable of 4G (LTE) connectivity. This puts it behind other fast-growing economies such asRussia and Brazil. Some commentators have suggested that there is an ulterior motivedriving the slower LTE adoption in China, which will result in it being less reliant on foreign ITfirms for the roll out of high-speed mobile internet connectivity. 8

Conclusion

Given the wide variation of access to high-speed mobile networks, it would be easy todismiss download speed as a part of the site experience a marketer or designer has nocontrol over. However, speed is the one factor that has the greatest effect on how customersbehave, and is also the most important factor to influence the outcome off key performanceindicators, such as bounce rate. There are techniques that can help reduce the impact oflatency for customers visiting on slow networks, such as responsive design strategies thatincorporate adaptive elements. One point is clear however: a heavy responsive web page

may be fine when visited with high-end devices in North America, but the experience of thesame site elsewhere in the world could be quite painful indeed.

7 http://www.telecompaper.com/news/us-korea-japan-to-account-for-78-of-lte-users-by-end-q2--10151238 http://www.techinasia.com/china-telco-protectionism-4g-mobile-unicom-telecom-td-lte/

Proportion of Top 100 devices with 4G (LTE) capability


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7. Whats next? Growth in mobile technologies has repeatedly taken businesses by surprise. For

this reason, it is vital that marketers keep up-to-date with the latest advancements

in the industry, or at the very least, understand the trends impacting key

performance indicators such as bounce rate or conversion. Mobile offers the

chance to build stronger connections with customers, enabling marketers to get

closer to the customer via new engagement channels.

Its important to note, however, that the challenge of delivering a locally relevant

experience within the context of global branding is becoming prevalent. Getting this right

demands a much more technical approach, requiring marketers to gain a better

understanding of the technologies required to drive opportunity creation. Meanwhile, the

IT function needs to develop a better appreciation of marketing goals and targets in

order to fully understand their technical support requirements. In short, for these

opportunities to be fully realized, the process needs buy-in from across the entire

organization, and the right collaborative mindset from all business functions. Such

issues need to be addressed today, so businesses can avoid being left trailing behind

customer expectations - or worse, risk abandonment from mobile customers that are

more tech savvy and demanding than the experience they re capable of delivering.

The longer the delay, the harder the catch up will be. Dont forget that this year there

could be as many as 20 million smart watches sold. 9 Some market observers expect

Google Glass to be a mainstream product by 2016. 10 We re seeing triple digit growth in

Web traffic coming from smart TVs when we look at the data being captured on the

Netbiscuits platform. Mobile technologies continue to evolve with unrelenting innovation.

How do tomorrows customers want to interact with you?

9 http://www.businessinsider.com/global-smartwatch-sales-set-to-explode-2014-310 http://www.businessinsider.com/google-glass-sales-projections-2013-11


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For more information

For more information on the details within this report, please contact Duncan Clark , or onTwitter @duncanjclark .

About Netbiscuits

Netbiscuits delivers compelling analytics and device detection products to helpcompanies achieve increased reach and performance, while improving conversion andcustomer engagement. Our cloud software records over one billion unique pageimpressions a month, serving global brands such as eBay, Coca Cola, MTV, BMW andT-Online. The award-winning Netbiscuits Device Library has been catalogued throughmanual testing since the year 2000, and contains detailed device feature capabilities,including over 7,300 device, 157 operating system and 343 web browser profiles,to create exceptional mobile experiences for every connected device. For moreinformation, please visit: www.netbiscuits.com

To subscribe free to Netbiscuits Mobile Analytics, to book a demo, or for moreinformation about, please visit: www.netbiscuits.com/mobile-analytics

To speak with a Netbiscuits solution advisor, complete this brief form and well get intouch to discuss your requirements.

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Web Trends Report Q2 2014