Nook passes Fire in Web traffic in June

Computerworld - The Barnes & Noble Nook tablet's Web traffic overtook that of the Kindle Fire for the first time in early June, while Apple's iPad maintained its overall dominance of the market, according to Chitika, an online ad network and data analytics firm.

The Chitika report is based on a study of hundred of millions of ad impressions (where a user visits a page with an ad) on several tablets from June 4 to June 10.

Chitika found 91.7% of tablet Web traffic comes from iPad devices. The June iPad total is down from the 94.64% that Chitika found in May.

Meanwhile, Nook users accounted for 0.85% of all tablet Web traffic in the June study, ahead of the Fire's Web traffic share of .71%.

The May Chitika study had found that the Fire had 0.82% of traffic share, while the Nook had 0.53%.

"The increase in Nook use may be attributed to brand familiarity" gained through new Barnes & Noble advertising, Chitika said.

The Samsung Galaxy leads the non-iPad market with 1.77% of tablet Web traffic, the report said.

In May, Chitika had said that "going forward, the competition is going to be hard pressed to find a way to overthrow the seemingly omnipotent Apple."

The analytics firm modified its conclusion in the June report. "As future tablets are released onto the market, we may expect to see the iPad's share drop to levels more comparable to its overall mobile device share," Chitika said.

Windows 8 tablets are expected to become available in the fourth quarter, which could have an impact on future results, Chitika added.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen, or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

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