comScore, Inc., a US-based provider of digital marketing information, has released an overview of the mobile and connected device landscape across EU5 - the five leading European markets of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The data shows cross-platform digital media consumption on the rise in the region, buoyed by the growth in adoption of smartphones, tablets and other non-computer web-enabled devices, collectively termed 'connected devices'. In August 2011, these devices drove 4.6 percent of total digital traffic in the EU5, fuelled primarily by the use of smartphones.
In the three month average period ending in August 2011, 91.4 million mobile subscribers across the EU5 reported using smartphones, up 46 percent from last year. Although Symbian continues to have the largest share of the smartphone market, its audience among all mobile and connected devices in current use was recently surpassed by the Apple iOS audience. The iOS platform (including iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches) currently accounts for 30.5 percent of all mobile and connected devices in use in the EU5 (excluding feature phones and e-readers), driven by the popularity of the iPad and iPod Touch. Symbian ranks second, accounting for 28.7 percent of all devices in use, followed by the Google Android platform at 23.5 percent.
A closer look at the composition of devices in use for each platform is said to reveal interesting differences. Symbian's share of the market is driven exclusively by Symbian smartphones, whereas nearly half of the iOS share is driven by iPads and iPod Touches in use. Meanwhile, tablets account for only 16 percent of the Android platform share.
An analysis of platform market share, as determined by Internet traffic coming from browser-based page views, shows the iOS platform driving more than 60 percent of all connected device traffic to significantly lead other platforms. Despite comprising less than a quarter of iOS devices in use, iPads fuelled this strong position accounting for 43 percent of all iOS traffic.
Following iOS, Android ranked second in delivering non-computer traffic with a 20.9 percent share. RIM accounted for 8.5 percent, while Symbian accounted for just 2.7 percent, indicating that Symbian smartphone users were less likely on average to consume digital media on their mobile devices.
In conjunction with these findings, comScore recently released the report Digital Omnivores: How Tablets, Smartphones and Connected Devices are Changing US Digital Media Consumption Habits. The report analyses how cross-platform consumption has created a vastly different landscape in the US as consumers utilise a growing number of devices to consume digital content. The report also analyses the impact these shifting consumption habits have on online visitation and engagement across the Internet.
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