I finally have some statistics from browser usage from December 2012. I actually managed to track both consumer usage and usage of actual retail jewelers.In the battle of smartphone operating systems you hear a lot of Google Android users saying that the Apple iPhone is horrible, meanwhile iPhone users don't normally make a big deal about the Android.
According to sales reports the Android is pulling ahead of the iPhone, and that might make you believe that the Android is the better smartphone. You really have to look at the fine print of those sales reports to see the Android is selling in large quantities in developing countries as the OS of choice for low-cost, disposable quality phones.
In other words, those reports are misleading for you to follow. You should be looking at your own Google Analytics reports to see what popular smartphone are in use.
In the month of December 2012, I actually tracked 22.19% of website visitors were using Apple's iOS. These were visitors to jewelry websites using the iPhone, iPad, or iPod.
Compare those iOS rates to 8.25% for Android users, which also includes all Android smartphone and tablets.
It sure looks like the Apple devices are the preferred device for those browsing jewelry online. In case you are counting, mobile visitors now account for 30.44% of website traffic.
How's your mobile website coming along?
Here are the general desktop browser statistics for December 2012 for visitors to jewelry websites:
37.1% using IE
11.33% using Chrome
11.04% using Firefox
8.51% using Safari
The remaining 32.02% that I'm not showing here were all less common browsers like PlayStation, Google TV, Opera, and many others.
Now let's change things up a little and take a look at what retail jewelers are doing.
According to my measurements, retail jewelry store owners prefer the Apple iOS products 5.2 to 1 over Android products. That's a larger percentage than the jewelry buying general public, but either way it's pretty clear that the majority of smartphone used in the industry belong to Apple.
Here are the general desktop browser statistics for December 2012 for retail jewelers:
55.79% are using IE
16.22% are using Firefox
13.92% are using Chrome
4.77% are using Safari
The remaining 9.3% were also less common browsers, but not as obscure as PlayStation or Google TV.
It seems like Internet Explorer is still the majority leader for browser usage among jewelry store owners. Although, 31.42% of that 55.79% are actually using IE version 8 or lower which means they probably have Windows Vista or older computers.
In conclusion, Apple iPhone are more popular than Android in these measurements, and the everyday average jewelry store owner is still behind the technology curve with computers in their stores.
